PROCEEDINGS 1st MEDITERRANEAN INTERDISCIPLINARY … · 1st Mediterranean Interdisciplinary Forum on Social Sciences and Humanities, MIFS 2014, 23-26 April, Beirut, Lebanon Proceedings

1st Mediterranean Interdisciplinary Forum on Social Sciences and Humanities, MIFS 2014, 23-26 April, Beirut, Lebanon Proceedings Vol.2

PROCEEDINGS

1st MEDITERRANEAN INTERDISCIPLINARY FORUM ON SOCIAL

SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES, MIFS 2014, Vol.2

23-26 April 2014, Beirut, Lebanon


PROCEEDINGS





European Scientific Institute, ESI (publishing)

Impressum Bibliographic information published by the National and University Library "St. Kliment Ohridski" in Skopje, Macedonia; detailed bibliographic data are available in the internet at http://www.nubsk.edu.mk/; CIP - 30/39(062)(082) 6(062)(082) COBISS. MK-ID 96399370 Any brand names and product names mentioned in this book are subject to trademark, brand or patent protection and trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. The use of brand names, product names, common names, trade names, product descriptions etc. even without a particular marking in this works is in no way to be construed to mean that such names may be regarded as unrestricted in respect of trademark and brand protection legislation and could thus be used by anyone. PROCEEDINGS: MEDITERRANEAN Interdisciplinary Forum on Social Sciences and Humanities (1 ; 2014 ; Beirut) Proceedings. Vol. 2 / 1st Mediterranean Interdisciplinary Forum on Social Sciences and Humanities, MIFS 2014, 23-26 April, Beirut, Lebanon. European Scientific Institute, ESI, 2014.. - (458 p.) : ilust. ; 28 cm Kocani, Republic of Macedonia Email: [email protected] Printed in Republic of Macedonia ISBN 978-608-4642-21-3 Copyright © 2014 by the authors, ESI and licensors All rights reserved. 2014


PROCEEDINGS





Table of Contents AN INTRODUCTORY APPROACH TO THE TEACHING OF THE CULTURAL ASPECTS OF ENGLISH…………………………………………………………………….1 María D. Milla Lara TEACHING ENGLISH FOR PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES (EPP) VS CONTENT AND LANGUAGE INTEGRATED LEARNING (CLIL): THE CASE OF PLEKHANOV RUSSIAN UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS (PRUE)…………………...7 Elena Gavrilova Kira Trostina A LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF PUN EXPRESSIONS IN JOURNALISTIC ARTICLES IN JORDAN………………………………………………18 Yousef Bader THE SECOND LANGUAGE INFLUENCE ON FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNERS’ ERRORS: THE CASE OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE FOR ALGERIAN STUDENTS LEARNING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE…………………………………30 Aissa Hanafi EDWARD SAID: THE POSTCOLONIAL THEORY AND THE LITERATURE OF DECOLONIZATION.............................................................................................................39 Lutfi Hamadi WOMEN WRITERS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND IN THE WEST…………………..47 Diane d’Almeida THE CONCEPT OF LOVE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MAULANA RUMI AND SHAH ABDUL LATIF BHITTAI…………………………………………………………52 Mubarak Ali Lashari Muhammad Safeer Awan RACHID AL DAIF’S DEAR MR. KAWABATA: AN ALLEGORY OF THE RECONSTRUCTION OF POST-WAR BEIRUT………………………………………...60 Daisy Waked LANGUAGE MODERNIZATION IN KAZAKH: TERMINOLOGY ISSUES………...69 Maira Yessimzhanova PHILOSOPHY’S HUMANISTIC DYNAMISM………………………………………....73 Ioannis Christodoulou THE GENERATIVE THEORY OF SOCIAL COHESION AND CIVIC INTEGRATION…………………………………………………………………………….80 Mauro Giardiello

1st Mediterranean Interdisciplinary Forum on Social Sciences and Humanities, MIFS 2014, 23-26 April, Beirut, Lebanon Proceedings Vol.2 URBAN DESIGN AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: A CASE OF MAKOKO AREA OF LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA……………………………………………………90 Olumuyiwa O Ajayi Faith O. Oviasogie Dominic E. Azuh Moses M. Duruji NOMADIC FEMINISM: FOUR LINES OF FLIGHT…………………………………..98 Zeina Al Azmeh PROBLEMATIZING SOCIAL SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE OF COLONIALISM ON POST-COLONIAL THEORIES………………………………………………………….108 Ruhi Can Alkin FLOOD MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN PAKISTAN…………………………………...116 Zarmina, A. S.H. Farooq. Naeem,S SEX, EMPLOYMENT STATUS AND THE LABOUR FORCE CONTRIBUTION OF POLYTECHNICS GRADUATES………………………………………………………...121 Abam Arikpo CRAFTING SMART CITIES IN THE GULF REGION: A COMPARISON OF MASDAR AND LUSAIL…………………………………………………………………..130 Evren Tok Fatemah Al Mohammad Maha Al Merekhi LINKING AN INTEGRATED APPROACH OF EMPOWERMENT TO EMPLOYEE CREATIVITY……………………………………………………………………………...141 Amro Al-Madadha Dimitrios N. Koufopoulos COMPULSIVE BUYING AND ELDERLY MEN: DEPRESSION, COPING STRATEGIES AND SOCIAL SUPPORT..........................................................................147 Loredana Varveri Cinzia Novara Valentina Petralia Floriana Romano Gioacchino Lavanco EXPLORING EVERYDAY URBAN ENVIRONMENT: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY IMMERSION INTO UNDERSTANDING CITIES..........................................................158 Ruxandra Puscasu THE ROLE OF KEY FACTORS OF TRAINING TRANSFER ON EMPLOYEE'S JOB PERFORMANCE: A REVIEW…………………………………………..………………163 Ibrahim Bin Zahari Tareq Fayeq Obaid

1st Mediterranean Interdisciplinary Forum on Social Sciences and Humanities, MIFS 2014, 23-26 April, Beirut, Lebanon Proceedings Vol.2 EUTHANASIA IN ISLAMIC VIEWS……………………………………………………170 Mehran Narimisa INDIA’S HOSTILITY TO INTERNATIONALIZE CRIMINAL JUSTICE- CALCULATIVE STRATEGY OR PREJUDICED RELUCTANCE?............................174 Garima Tiwari EUTHANASIA: AN ISLAMIC ETHICAL PERSPECTIVE…………………………...179 Hamid Reza Nikookar Seyed Hassan Jaafarian Sooteh HUMAN VALUES, HEALTH CONCEPTS, AND TREATMENT APPROACHES ARE CULTURE-DEPENDENT: WHY WESTERN PSYCHOLOGY DOES NOT SUFFICE……………………………………………………………………………………186 Walter Renner Ingrid Salem EUTHANASIA IN IRANIAN AND EGYPT LAW……………………………………...196 Bader Soudani Saadery EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE THE THEORY AND MEASUREMENT OF EQ…………………………………………………………………………………………...201 Haybat Abdul Samad OUTPATIENT PRE-ADMISSION AND AFTERCARE FOR PATIENTS WITH DEPRESSIVE AND ANXIETY DISORDERS: PRELIMINARY RESULTS FROM AN AUSTRIAN CLINIC……………………………………………………………………….207 Ingrid Salem Richard Gaugeler Walter Renner A CONSTITUENT OF CHAROTAR UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY……………………………………………………………………………214 Vipin Vageriya MARITAL QUALITY AND FAMILY TYPOLOGY: EFFECTS ON PAKISTANI ADOLESCENT'S MENTAL HEALTH………………………………………………….217 Sumaira Rashid WITH REGARDS IN EGYPT SHARIA…………………………………………………224 Zahra Hamedani Seyed Milad Alizadeh Javaheri SUITABILITY MODEL BASED ON GIS AND MCDA FOR SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF SETTLEMENTS IN DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHIC ENVIRONMENTS…………………………………………………………………………229 Nashwan Shukri Abdullah ECOSYSTEM-BASED APPROACH TO NORWEGIAN AQUACULTURE MANAGEMENT…………………………………………………………………………...243 Saleh Alaliyat

1st Mediterranean Interdisciplinary Forum on Social Sciences and Humanities, MIFS 2014, 23-26 April, Beirut, Lebanon Proceedings Vol.2 SPATIAL VARIATION OF VULNERABILITY IN GEOGRAPHIC AREAS OF NORTH LEBANON……………………………………………………………………….254 Sahar T. Issa Irna van der Molen Manal R. Nader Jon C. Lovett TRUST AND COOPERATION RELATIONS IN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT OF LEBANON………………………………………………………...267 Nivine H. Abbas Irna van der Molen, Manal R. Nader Jon C. Lovett ADDED VALUE AT REGIONAL AGRI-FOOD PRODUCTS IN ARGENTINA "DENOMINATION OF ORIGIN SALAME OF TANDIL" A CASE STUDY OF SOCIAL COOPERATION AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT………………………….278 María Inés Jatib Marina Bentivegna Horacio A. Repetto BARRIERS FACED BY NEW IMMIGRANTS IN ACCESSING HEALTH CARE SERVICES IN A MID-SIZED CANADIAN CITY……………………………………...287 Emad Awad Carlos Teixeira ATTITUDE OF INDIAN MOTHERS TOWARDS CHILD RIGHTS…………………292 Valliammal Shanmugam Ramachandra OVER THE BRIEFING STUDENTS TEACHERS INTEGRATION OF THE QUR'AN AND SUNNAH WITH THE CONCEPTS OF HEALTH AND ALIBAIH AND BIOLOGICAL……………………………………………………………………………...296 Zeid Kilani D. ÇáÚćÇăŃÉ Mohammed Hassan D. Mohamed Zahran Abu Ali D. Adnan Daulat D. Hussein Farhan Rmzon D. Ibrahim Hammad GLOBAL BIOPROGRESSIVE REHABILITATION PROGRAM AND POSTURAL INSTABILITY IN PARKINSON’S DISEASE…………………………………………...303 Bellomo RG Di Pancrazio L Khodor H Saggini R Barassi G Carmignano SM Di Stefano A

1st Mediterranean Interdisciplinary Forum on Social Sciences and Humanities, MIFS 2014, 23-26 April, Beirut, Lebanon Proceedings Vol.2 A PROPOSED SECURITY ARCHITECTURE FOR ESTABLISHING PRIVACY DOMAINS IN E-HEALTH CLOUD………………………………………………………...315 Al-Khanjari, Z., Al-Ani, A., Al-Hermizy,S. FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS: EXPLORATION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL AND NEUROLOGICAL FUNCTIONING OF ELDERLY IN GILGIT & LAHORE, PAKISTAN............................................................................................................................324 Najma Najam Rabia Hussain Kanwal Rukhsana Kausar Hira Fatima AWARENESS AND ADOPTION OF MAINTAINING QUALITY STANDARDS: A CONFECTIONERIES PRODUCERS’ PROSPECTIVE.................................................344 AL Sandika SP Seethagama VS Jayamanne WINE INDUSTRY IN THE BEKAA VALLEY, LEBANON FOOD-PROCESSING INDUSTRY AS A BASIS FOR COMMUNITY DYNAMICS AND LOCAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT…………………………………………………………..351 Layal Bou Antoun ARAB STUDENTS INSIDE THE SOVIET BLOC : A CASE STUDY ON CZECHOSLOVAKIA DURING THE 1950S AND 60S...................................................364 Daniela Hannova ARABIC CONSERVATION METHODOLOGIES……………………………………..373 Bachir Keyrouz CONVIVIALITY IN ANTIOCH ON THE ORONTES THROUGH THE STUDY OF FUNERARY STELES DATING FROM THE ANTIQUITY…………………………...382 Evrim Güven BLASPHEMY OF DOWRY IN INDIA AND AN INSURGENCE OF AN ARTIST: NEELIMA SHEIKH AGAINST THE SYSTEM………………………………………...393 Zeba Hasan DETERMINATION OF THE CHEMICAL AND GENETIC DIFFERENCES OF LAURUS COLLECTED FROM THREE DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHIC AND CLIMATIC AREAS IN LEBANON……………………………………………………...405 Chmit Mohammad Said Kanaan Hussein

1st Mediterranean Interdisciplinary Forum on Social Sciences and Humanities, MIFS 2014, 23-26 April, Beirut, Lebanon Proceedings Vol.2 OBJECT RECOGNITION THROUGH KINECT USING HARRIS TRANSFORM.......................................................................................................................406 Azeem Hafeez Hafsa Arshad Ali Kamran Rida Malhi Moiz Ali Shah Muhammad Ali Saad Malik A TECHNICAL GLANCE ON SOME COSMETİC OİLS…………………………….418 Kenan Yildirim A. Melek Kostem CONSTRUCT VALIDITY OF THE BATTERY OF DEVELOPMENTAL ASSESSMENT (BDA): A MODEL TOOL FOR LEBANON…………………………..428 Huda Husseini Bibi EFFECT OF MIXING ZNO:TIO2 NANOPARTICLES IN P3HT:PCBM SOLAR CELLS………………………………………………………………………………………435 S.Ali A. Zareen M. Ikram R. Murray A. Hussain S. Ismat Shah THE EFFECT OF ANNEALING TEMPERATURES ON PHASE AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF TIO2 NANOPARTICLES FOR SOLAR CELL APPLICATIONS……………………………………………………………………….......440 A. Zareen S. Ali M. Irfan WORDS, RHYTHM AND MEANING: LANGUAGE AND HYBRIDITY……………444 Soha El Samad


1

AN INTRODUCTORY APPROACH TO THE TEACHING OF THE CULTURAL ASPECTS OF ENGLISH

María D. Milla Lara (MA) Universidad de Jaén, Spain

Abstract Over the last decades, new approaches to language teaching are aiming for a more

participative and interactive language experience. Moreover, an increasingly globalised world fosters interaction between different cultures. Bearing these facts in mind, this paper firstly examines the generally poor level of intercultural awareness that there exists amongst secondary school students. Secondly, it focuses on the potential positive effects that an approach to cultural elements in the FL class would perform on our students and on our society. Thirdly, it suggests some ideas to implement culture teaching in the classroom. In fast-changing societies such as ours, we need highly culturally competent individuals to face the challenges to come, and an appropriate way to do this is through language education.

Keywords: Language, teaching, English, culture, communication Introduction

This project focuses on the teaching of foreign cultural elements in the language classroom. We believe that the role of cultural elements has been underestimated by teachers, textbooks and other methods of teaching languages over the last decades, when the goal of successful language learning was thought to be achieved by focusing on different parts of the language such as vocabulary, pronunciation, listening, or, more specifically, grammar. These parts were artificially separated from each other, expecting the student to make sense of them one by one to then link them altogether in a communicative situation. Nevertheless, in this project we will defend the teaching of a language (more specifically, the English language) in a more natural and holistic way, in which culture plays an important role as motivator as well as a provider of contextual information of the language used in real communication. I

What do we understand by “culture”? According to Brown, “Culture is a way of life. It is the context within which we exist, think, feel, and relate to others”. That is, it is something learnt by individuals during their lives. There are many examples of a close relationship between the way in which we see the world and the language we use.

In order to acquire communicative ability, it is not enough to have linguistic abilities, which are the ones pursued by language teachers for many years. Byram (1997: 10) differentiates six different competences that take part in communicative ability. Moreover, besides this series of competences, whenever we communicate with other people we bring out our own system of values, beliefs, prejudices and so on, and we decode the messages received through those same filters in the communication process. That is to say, the communication process is not as direct as we may think, since the messages are going through such filters, which are learnt throughout our lives based on our cultural background and personal experiences.

As can be seen, the communication process is not a simple one between people of a similar background, let alone a communication process in a real context with people of a different culture to ours. In a real context, our communicative ability competences must be


2

stronger in order to foresee, amend and overcome misunderstandings and to get our meaning across. For this reason, we must make our students aware of these difficulties, equip them with the tools to overcome them and guide them in the process of their Second Culture Acquisition. Getting to know other cultures and questioning one’s own values will certainly not provide the key to intercultural communication. However, questioning one’s own systems of beliefs and integrating others’ points of view will be enriching and enlightening not only for the sake of intercultural communication, but also for our students’ personal growth.

In order to acquire a second culture one goes through several steps. Hammer et al. (2003) created a psychometric assessment for Bennett’s “Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity” (1986). Bennett’s model described the different phases people go through when in contact with other cultures. The phases the authors described were the following ones: denial, polarization, minimization, acceptance and adaptation.

Figure 1: Intercultural Development Continuum

Hofstede et al. (2010) carried out studies on national cultures of many countries to

then compare them. They compare the data of 76 countries, bearing in mind the following criteria: Power Distance, Individualism vs. Collectivism, Masculinity vs. Feminity, Uncertainty Avoidance, Long-Term Orientation, and Indulgence vs. Restraint. These pairs are evaluated individually in each country to then be given a score (based on the average score of all individuals evaluated), which tells in which part of the band scale for that criterion the average person in that country is.

The British anthropologist Edward T. Hall (1976) formulated a theory in which he established an analogy between different cultures and an iceberg. According to this theory, as in an iceberg, most of the cultural conventions remain beneath the surface and are not seen in a superficial observation, while the part that is easily observable is actually a very small percentage of the whole. The parts that we can see are people’s behaviours, material productions and physical/tactile things, that is, the most superficial items of a culture. However, the largest part is the deep structure, which remains beneath the surface: Notions of self, Importance of Time, Assumptions, Learning Styles, Attitudes towards Social Status, and many more. Whenever people from different cultural backgrounds get together, the part of the iceberg beneath the surface is the one that causes clashes and problems. This is represented in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2: Cultural icebergs


3

A different approach towards language learning and acculturation is John Schumann’s theory of Social Distance (1976). In his theory, social distance implies a certain degree of dissimilarity between two cultures when they come into contact within a person. Social Distance is relevant to us as teachers of a foreign language because the more the social distance, the more difficulties students will encounter when learning the foreign language. Moreover, if there is a relation of dominance of one culture over the other, there will not be a good learning situation.

Although Spanish society is rather homogeneous compared to other countries, we do have contact with other cultures without the need to go as far as to the US or even cross the borders of the country. For this reason, we believe that this project of integrating language and culture teaching in the language classroom (English language in our case) should transcend the academic setting, encouraging our students to improve their acculturation skills in the society around them.

The methodology used in this research has been interpretative and qualitative. The research tools used were questionnaires delivered to to 4 different groups of students studying at 4 different levels in secondary education. The questionnaires were in Spanish, consisted of 3 sections, and students were asked to choose between 4 numeric answers (instead of 5) in order to avoid central tendency bias. The analysis of these questionnaires has been interpretive analysis of qualitative research, for the reasons mentioned earlier.

The study has been carried out at I.E.S. Auringis (Jaén), in four different groups of students, each of them studying at a different level. The groups ranged from 3rd of ESO until 2nd of Bachillerato, which was, out of the 4, the only non-bilingual group. There were a total of 102 students, distributed between the groups, as can be seen in the table. The results drawn from our questionnaire analysis are specific to our particular context, and, in order to make generalisations to other groups of students, schools and geographical areas, further research would be required.

Figure 3: Global results for section 1, part 1 (items 1-7)

As can be seen in this figure, most students agree with item 1 about the importance of

learning culture when learning English. There is also a tendency for these students to do activities in English during their free time. The evaluation of the other items, which asked students about their textbook and other materials and their knowledge of different cultures, has not been as positive, from which we can infer that although there is a strong motivation to learn culture, their actual knowledge and the elements with which they learn are not regarded positively.


4

Figure 4: Global results for section 1, part 2 (items 8-12)

This figure shows how the information given to the students about the different

countries (other than England and the US) is not the same for all. While emphasis is placed on some countries such as Ireland, Australia and South Africa, other countries, such as Philippines, Nigeria, or Singapore have obtained very low results.

Figure 5: Global results for section 1, part 2 (item 13)

In Figure 5 we find the distribution of the information in the textbook for the different

countries, according to the students’ perceptions. For example, we may focus on the position of the US, which is one of the countries which are low rated, and Canada, which is one of the countries included under the term “other”.

Figure 6: Global results for section 1, part 2 (item 14)

Figure 6 shows the countries about which students would like to learn more. The US is

the first one, and Canada is third in the rating, despite having a very low relevance in the textbook, from which we infer that textbooks do not necessarily match students’ interests.


5

Figure 7: Global results for section 2 (item 1)

We asked our students to mention the three most prominent features of England, and

this figure shows the results. The most mentioned features are food and drink, the introversion of the English people, and climate and landscape. The overall results match stereotypes, which were confirmed when they were asked about the English people. Then they were asked whether they would consider that the English and Spanish cultures are similar, and the results are the following:

Figure 8: Partial results for section 2 (item 2)

These data show that the students evaluated would be in a phase of polarization using

Hammer et al.’s term, that is, having a strong feeling of us versus them, rather than focusing on the similarities between the two cultures.

Figure 9: Correct answers for section 3

In the Quizz about English culture, 1st of Bachillerato students were the ones who had

a higher number of correct answers, followed by 4th of E.S.O., 2nd of Bachillerato, and 3rd of E.S.O. These results follow a tendency already seen in previous items.


6

Conclusion

The students who participated in our study have, in general, the motivation and autonomy to be direct and active participants of their own English language learning process. The majority of the students spend time at home using English in their leisure time led by an intrinsic motivation that has nothing to do with school or grades.

Yet, the results obtained in the different sections of our questionnaire are lower than expected and lead us to conclude that the culture of the English-speaking world is neither sufficiently nor appropriately taught in EFL lessons in Secondary Education.

If oversimplified and, in many cases, wrong pictures of England constitute our students’ knowledge of England and its culture (about which, for geographical, political and sociological reasons they have received a higher amount of information than they have received from other countries), what can be expected about their degree of knowledge concerning other countries? Do we want our students to know about a tiny percentage of all the cultures in our world (just because the values to which they grant priority coincide with ours), or do we want them to know about the existing variety of cultures and to help them to form a personal critical opinion of these countries by themselves?

Hughes’ (1986) ideas for educators to raise cultural awareness amongst students in EFL classrooms include: The Comparison method, Culture assimilators, the Culture capsule, Drama, Audiomotor unit or Total Physical Response, Newspapers, Projected media and The culture island.

To these useful and practical ideas we would add the following: 1. Participation of the English class as a whole in special days of the year that are related to multiculturalism or to other countries’ traditions 2. Interdepartamental collaboration between the English department and other departments 3. Thematic week: one week, one country 4. International Bazaar References: Bennett, Milton J. (1986). “A Developmental Approach to Training for Intercultural Sensitivity”. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 10.2: 179–196. Brown, H. Douglas (2000). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education. Byram, Michael (1997). Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence. Clevedon, Philadelphia, Toronto, Sydney, Johannesburg: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Consejería de Educación de la Junta de Andalucía (2005). “Plan de fomento del plurilingüismo: Una política lingüística para la sociedad andaluza”. Sevilla: BOJA (Boletín Oficial de la Junta de Andalucía). European Commission (2013). Website. <http://tinyurl.com/o7phtom> (25/11/2013). Hall, Edward T. (1976). Beyond Culture. New York: Anchor Books. Hammer, Mitchell R., Milton J. Bennett, & Richard L. Wiseman (2003). "The Intercultural Development Inventory: A Measure of Intercultural Sensitivity”. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 27.4: 421–443. Hofstede, Geert, Gert Jan Hofstede & Michael Minkov (1991). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. Volume II. London: McGraw-Hill. Hughes, George H. (1986). “An Argument for Culture Analysis in the Second Language Classroom”. In Valdes, Joyce Merrill (ed.) (1986). Culture Bound. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schumann, John H. (1976). “Social Distance as a Factor in Second Language Acquisition”. Language Learning 26: 135–143.


7

TEACHING ENGLISH FOR PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES (EPP) VS CONTENT AND LANGUAGE INTEGRATED

LEARNING (CLIL):THE CASE OF PLEKHANOV RUSSIAN UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS (PRUE)

Elena Gavrilova, Associate Prof. Kira Trostina, Associate Prof.

Plekhanov Russian University of Economics

Abstract

This article intends to explore the special aspects of Teaching English for Professional Purposes (EPP) and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (PRUE), one of the biggest and oldest economic universities in the Russian Federation. The paper adopts both quantitative and qualitative methodology approaches, i.e. it applies statistical data collected during the research and literature review in order to highlight the benefits and opportunities of both approaches as well as the problem areas in teaching professional English at the university level. It also focuses on the controversies faced by EPP and CLIL teachers and investigates how well current programmes and curricula satisfy both the teachers’ and students’ needs. The paper advocates that only integrated interdisciplinary approach between language and academic subject studies can result in synergy needed to prepare highly-qualified specialists in a particular field of economics.

Keywords: EPP, ESP, CLIL, CBI, foreign language, academic subject, integration Introduction

The paper considers experience in teaching English for Professional Purposes to senior Bachelor and Master students at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (PRUE). Established in 1907 with its 17 thousand student body PRUE has always prided itself as an innovative educational and research institute at the cutting edge of economics, open to new progressive trends in science and teaching. Having joined the Bologna Process in higher education Russian universities are now undergoing through an intricate process of aligning their language programmes in accordance with competence-based approach in education. The primary objective of both Bachelors’ and Masters’ programmes is building up professional communicative competences of students of economics, i.e. the ability to solve communicative tasks within their professional activity. Many of PRUE graduates seek employment with the biggest multinational companies (such as PwC, E&Y, Citibank, Raiffeisenbank and the like) where the office working language is English. Therefore the increasing pressure of globalization is changing our perceptions of education when getting knowledge is more and more biased to its saleability and future graduates’ employability to find the best career options possible. In this context, teaching English for its own sake in a regular classroom environment is no longer the case, and the key task of English language studies is becoming to train students for cross-cultural issues, general linguistic awareness, and communicative strategies. The emphasis of language learning is shifted towards immediacy and clarity of communication, rather than control over the subtle shades of meaning and nuances typical of native speakers. Though the need to sensitize students to such linguistic nuances is generally acknowledged, teaching them to speak like native speakers is now considered to be outmoded


8

and even archaic. The decreasing number of interactive teacher-student hours accentuates self-study and thus affects the conventional patterns of language practice provided for students. Naturally, non-English–speaking universities all over the world are seeking ways and methods to improve their language studies. In our view, the best solution would be a wide implementation of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) when at least some subjects for senior undergraduates are delivered in English. Presently PRUE offers some very popular courses fully presented in English (for example, the International Business School (IBS-Plekhanov) and some Masters’ programmes); but a full-scale introduction of them is impeded by some obvious obstacles such as heterogeneity of the students, insufficiency of subject teachers with a good command of English and etc. Hence, the only remaining option for redirecting the objectives and upgrading the course could be further enhancement of EPP courses and enriching them with elements of Content-Based Language Instruction (CBLI) with the focus on Task-Based Learning (TBL) approach.

The elective course English for Professional Purposes (EPP) crowns the hierarchy of language studies at university and stands out among them due to its inherent difficulty and importance for future specialists. It is a relatively short customized language course tailored to satisfy the particular needs of future graduates in a narrow field of their future profession, training them in the focus vocabulary in certain areas. As the contemporary labour market requires more and more narrow specialists, therefore there is a need for a huge variety of such courses. The formidable scope of the task which every chair of foreign languages in a large university faces can be exemplified with PRUE with its 49 specialization programmes providing education on 170 different professional profiles. The list of programmes and courses ranges from "Accounting and Audit" to “Management in Sports Industry” and “Commodity Management” and each of them must be equipped with its own language course. Our research discloses that the foreign language teachers who have to deliver EPP courses, albeit being highly intrinsically motivated, regularly point out numerous problems which they encounter and which impede the successful implementation of the courses. Looking in the rear view window of our past 20-year experience in EPP teaching, we have conducted our research in order to spot problem areas, analyse them and suggest ways of raising students’ foreign language professional competence by promoting interdisciplinary approach in EPP courses at economic universities and making them more flexible in response to the demands of job markets. Literature Review Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)

CLIL has become an "umbrella term" encompassing different forms of using language as the medium of instruction in bi-lingual education such as Bilingual Integration of Languages and Disciplines (BILD), English Across the Curriculum (EAC), English as an Academic Language (EAL), English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI), Foreign Language Immersion Program (FLIP) Foreign Languages as a Medium of Education (FLAME), Languages Across the Curriculum (LAC), Teaching Content Through English and others. The term CLIL was coined by David Marsh, University of Jyväskylä, Finland in 1994 who first described a methodological approach in which a foreign language tuition is integrated within subject teaching as follows: "CLIL refers to situations where subjects, or parts of subjects, are taught through a foreign language with dual-focused aims, namely the learning of content and the simultaneous learning of a foreign language." The 'dual-focused' objective implies that CLIL works two ways. Being based on an integrated interdisciplinary approach, CLIL differs from all other approaches to language teaching and learning. Many researchers highlight the fact that if it is properly implemented, it not only contributes to improving students’ language skills and subject knowledge, but also promotes multiculturalism, intercultural knowledge and understanding. Fostering the development of diverse learning strategies and the application of


9

innovative teaching methods, content related instruction facilitates students’ cognitive development and learning in general as well. Besides, CLIL presents one more advantage to the higher educational establishment, namely, better time-management. In desperate attempts to find timetabling space educational and administrative departments often compete for elective courses while CLIL could be a compromising solution benefiting all the parties involved. In order to provide high-level education for their students and increase their international rating in the educational community many non-English speaking universities are seeking ways to introduce CLIL in their study programs. Content Based Language Instruction (CBI)

CBI is designed to provide second-language learners instruction in content and language. The CBI approach can be comparable to English for Specific Purposes (ESP), English for Professional Purposes (EPP) or English for Academic Purposes (EAP). The main objective of CBI is acquiring the language within the specific context of any academic subject matter. Rather than learning a language for its own sake, it is learned within the context of a specific academic subject (Brinton, Snow and Wesche, 1989). There are many advantages of CBI: being involved in studying interesting and stimulating content, students learn language automatically without much effort; making connections between the language and their prior knowledge, students learn useful vocabulary within relevant context thus getting a fuller picture of the subject. Additionally, CBI approach suggests great flexibility and adaptability of the courses to satisfy particular students needs. And finally, delivering complex information in real life situations increases students’ motivation as they feel close links between their studies and future professional activity. Being focused on a communicative approach, the CBI classroom is learner rather than teacher centered (Littlewood, 1981) when students are actively involved in the studying process and learn through doing rather than passive consuming of the teacher’s input. Students’ social roles in the classroom are biased towards interactive learning, negotiation, information gathering and the co-construction of meaning (Lee and VanPatten, 1995). Therefore, many researchers now view CBI as a progressive way of increasing the student proficiency in English and providing them with competences required by different professions. Task Based Language Learning (TBLL)

Task-based language learning (TBLL), also known as task-based language teaching (TBLT) or task-based instruction (TBI) focuses on the use of authentic language and on asking students to do meaningful tasks using the target language. In an economic context such tasks may include attending a job interview, discussing a budget or chasing up slow payers. In the book ‘A Framework for Task-Based Learning’ J. Willis (1996) defines a task as an activity when the target language is used by the learner with a communicative objective to achieve the desired outcome. As a result assessment of the task is primarily based on task outcome rather than on accuracy of the language. This makes TBLL especially popular for developing foreign language fluency and student confidence thus destroying psychological barriers and eliminating a fear of making a mistake. TBLL has world-wide support in the teaching community as it offers a great deal of flexibility, wide range of open-ended stimulating tasks (case studies, problem-solving tasks, role-plays, listening and reading exercises for further discussion, presentations, negotiations, etc.) and invariably promotes students’ autonomy. One of the major scholars, who have done research in this area, Jon Larsson (2001) sees one of the main virtues of TBLL in displaying significant improvement in students’ communicative skills and general ability of social interaction which are two central factors in language learning. A language course built around assignments that require students to act, interact and communicate “on site” is much more beneficial than learning a foreign


10

language exclusively for its own sake in pseudo-communication classroom activities with no direct connection to real-life situations. English for Specific (Professional) Purposes (ESP / EPP)

The significance of English in academic and professional settings began to be recognized several decades ago, in the 1960s, and it has not decreased since then. Ypsilandis and Kantaridou (2007) say that English for Professional Purposes (EPP) refers to “the actual needs of (future) professionals at work”. The spread of science and technology all over the world, together with the internationalization of the university world and the globalisation of the world economy has made the English language the current lingua franca of international communication. Specialised languages and professional jargons usually refer to the specific discourse used by professionals in order to communicate and transfer information and knowledge. There are as many specialised languages as there are trades and professions.

On studying research literature on the matter we have to admit that, since the term English for Professional Purposes was first coined, there has been no unanimity in either positioning it in the hierarchy of other English language courses or its content, with different scholars viewing EPP as a branch of English for Specific Purposes, English for Academic Purposes, English for Restricted Areas, Functional English, etc. It is not our aim to define the term or to carry out a historical review of the essence of EPP, since many authors have already done that in the last 50 years (e.g. Gunnarson, 1994, Alcaraz-Varo E. 2000, Hewings, M., 2002, Engberg, J., 2006). Nor do we want to get involved in the debate over whether English for Professional Purposes (EPP) should be viewed as a branch of ESP or if they are now two different areas of teaching and research.

Our aim is to summarize the issues concerning implementation of EPP courses at university level and suggest the ways of their improvement. Being designed to meet specific needs of the learners EPP makes use of underlying methodology, and activities of the discipline it serves and is centered on the language appropriate to these activities in terms of grammar, lexis, register, study skills, discourse and genre. Unlike other language courses EPP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced adult learners and senior students and rests on confident knowledge of the language system. The highlight of EPP is to equip learners with spesialised vocabulary and jargon within a professional framework and everyday professional communication patterns. Research Methodology Data Collection Methods and Procedures

The subjects of the study were 137 undergraduate Bachelor and Master students of different faculties and departments, 19 EPP teachers, 23 academic subject lecturers, 12 PRUE alumni working in multinational companies, agencies and banks.

The method which we employed in our research was a descriptive survey research method. According to Fraenkel and Wallen (1996) a descriptive survey “involves asking the same set of questions (often prepared in the form of a written questionnaire or ability test) of a large number of individuals either by mail, by telephone, or in person”. The data were collected by means of one-to-one interviews (former graduates and academic subject lecturers), brainstorming and panel discussions (EPP colleagues) and questionnaires (PRUE students).

The questionnaire was specially designed to collect the information about the student’s needs and expectations of the course; panel discussions with EPP colleagues mainly focused on the difficulties in preparing and delivering EPP courses and the ways of overcoming them; one-to-one interviews with former graduates now working in multinational companies sought to receive their feedback on relevance of PRUE’s EPP courses to their professional activity and spot problem areas which need further correction and improvement.


11

Having received insightful replies to our questions we got first-hand information about the respondents’ thoughts and visions which gave us enthusiasm to share our views as well. Findings Examples of successful implementation of CLIL at PRUE

PRUE can boast some successful internationally-recognized results in implementing CLIL approach. International Business School (IBS-Plekhanov) set up in 1997 functions under "Double Degree" program and has fully compatible study programs of the University and foreign partner schools. Having obtained the International Accreditation by the European Council for Business Education (ECBE) IBS provides a unique opportunity to study all academic disciplines in English. No wonder that IBS alumni work for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, Deloitte & Touche, McKinsey, Nestle, Philips, Samsung Electronics, Procter&Gamble, Sun-Interbru, Unilever, L'Oreal, etc. It should be noted, though, that successful realization of CLIL approach at IBS would be unthinkable without strict selection criteria demanding future students to present an international language certificate (IELTS, TOEFL, CAE, CPE).

More recently some Masters’ programs also introduced CLIL-based courses such as International Marketing and International Financial Management also aimed at the brightest students with a good command of English. Some other Bachelor programs also have a good record of introducing CLIL in their curricula – the Finance Faculty, for example, two years ago began to select students with fluent English to form groups studying all academic subjects in English.

Although, despite the evident success and popularity of such programs, many students point out that there are some downsides to them. As only the minority of lecturers are native speakers, not all of the Russian subject teachers are proficient enough in English. Moreover, some subjects due to their inherent difficulty (for example, Higher Mathematics or Statistics) are hard to study even in a mother tongue, let alone in a foreign language, which in turn may result in academic failure, underperformance and demotivation. Factors impeding wider implementation of CLIL

Successful CLIL depends on a variety of factors. Lack or insufficient development of any of them may impede wider CLIL implementation in PRUE.

Firstly, management factors play a crucial role in implementing CLIL at a university. On a university level the shift from national curricula in the mother tongue to a foreign language requires much administrative work. In discussions with our colleagues from academic departments it has become evident that there are some subjects which are correspondent to their analogies in English-speaking countries whereas others, like the History of Russia, when lectured in a foreign language may sound unnatural, to say the least. More than that, the same subjects by name may contain very different subject matter (e.g. Accountancy studies in European countries are based on IFRS principles which are not yet widely used by Russian companies). So such courses may actually benefit only to those who will later seek employment in international accounting and auditing firms. At the same time, when in English, attempts to deliver accountancy as it has traditionally been done in Russia may cause significant errors in terminology understanding and application. So a university management should not react over-enthusiastically every time they receive bottom-up initiatives from subject teachers who would like to attempt to deliver their courses in English. People responsible for CLIL introduction must demonstrate common sense and the ability to balance between university staff aspirations and actual students’ needs. Otherwise, if not managed skillfully, language immersion instead of desired synergy may lead to academic failures. And last, but, by no means, least, university management must exercise strict control over CLIL implementation for another reason: a teacher in CLIL needs much more lecture


12

and seminar preparation time and the curricula must abundantly fit with this need for extra time.

Although management factor is all important, some more factors are vital for CLIL to work effectively. Teacher factor implies the answer to the question: who makes a better CLIL teacher - a native speaker or the Russian bi-lingual subject teacher. Many economic schools tend to invite foreign lectures believing that due to their authenticity native speakers will always outperform their non-native colleagues in the CLIL classroom. In our opinion, it's an arguable point. The feedback from recent graduates received during our research gives warning examples when a native speaker, speaking at full speed, using jargon, slang and colloquialisms, may unintentionally cause a lot of anxiety for CLIL learners. Statistical data prove the fact that only the brightest students can really make full use of all the linguistic input provided by a native speaker whereas about 70% of student respondents would prefer to have a bi-lingual local subject teacher who, in case there is a need, could clarify the most complicated issues or murky areas with the help of the mother tongue.

Another concern is the language level required from teachers working through the medium of a foreign language. What benchmark do we need here to assess it? In our view, it should be functionally adequate for teaching the subject in the classroom, somewhere B2+, which is rather challenging for an average lecturer. CLIL teachers at PREU are expected to be thoroughly proficient in everything they ask their students to do in their subject in English as a foreign language. Although the University provides free English classes for subject teachers on a regular basis, still there are not enough of those who dare to teach their subjects in English. As important as the question of the language level is the question of methodology used in the classroom. It is universally accepted that CLIL classroom methodology must be communicative with extensive use of visuals to embed the content in a form that students can easily consume, it needs to be cognitively challenging, being sequenced from less demanding to more thought-provoking tasks and, probably, most importantly, it needs to have as much learners’ collaboration as possible. Specialist subject teachers in our University, by far and large are highly-qualified specialists in their subjects (with more than 1280 faculty members holding PhD Degree), and when some of them attempt CLIL they don’t need any subject refreshment courses, of course. What subject teachers employing CLIL do need, and need a lot, is the awareness of how the foreign language works in their subject, that is what the language of their subject is, and how it functions. They also need a repertoire of activities, methodology and techniques to help students develop the specific language they need to deliver in English in their subject. Unless special teacher-training courses to bridge this gap are organized in PRUE, further implementing of CLIL is being slowed down.

Moreover, it is necessary to promote a wider teacher collaboration among like-minded CLIL teachers all over the world. Very few of our university colleagues know about the existence of international associations of teachers of CLIL, such as The Forum for Across the Curriculum Teaching (FACTWorld), which is a forum set up to support the teaching of subjects through the medium of a foreign language, bilingual education, immersion education, content and language integrated learning. In order not to reinvent innovative methods every time subject teachers develop a new lecture or lesson in English they need to join this and similar networks. The above described state of things is very different from the chair of Foreign languages where each of us is actively involved into educational schemes of publishers like CUP, MacMillan, Longman, etc. – we regularly attend their seminars and webinars, review their textbooks, take part in piloting projects, etc., which keeps us in the picture of the latest trends in English language teaching and methodology.

Learner factors can also either facilitate (when eager students request for the introduction of CLIL) or impede the process. Though some modern researchers advocate that provided the conditions are satisfactory all learners are able to achieve their best and they


13

believe that all learners are equally suited to CLIL, our research contradicts this assumption and data collected show that presently CLIL in PRUE is the domain of the selected educational elite. There are many reasons for this. Higher education is on the top of educational pyramid and students with very different language background are admitted to universities. Language studies provided in PRUE, though being very intensive and stimulating, still cannot fill the huge gap in the students’ language level, ranging from pre-intermediate to advanced. Until the State Examination in a foreign language is introduced on a national scale (as right now it is elective), the situation will hardly change.

Obtaining teaching resources can also be a problem. Every subject teacher faces a dilemma which materials to use in his/her classroom: authentic textbooks, translated into English Russian textbooks, Internet resources or their own materials. Each of them has their own advantages and disadvantages and our discussions with the colleagues prove that most of them have to compromise somewhere among all sources. Consequently, each course is utterly unique! When preparing their courses in English subject teachers in PRUE have to do a formidable amount of work: text adaptation of foreign publications, translations from English into Russian and vice versa, while making sure that the concepts are contextually embedded and language is sequenced and recycled. Additionally, culture specificity in the foreign books unfailingly causes extra challenges to local learners of content in English. What’s more, CLIL courses are expected to be developed around a skills-based curriculum and be interactive, must involve practice in all aspects of language: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Such courses will also need to be highly dynamic, to provide ‘custom-made’ resources implying that students must be involved in individual, pair, small group, and large group activities, workshops, presentations and so on. Naturally, these titanic efforts must be compensated with not only teacher’s personal feeling of self-satisfaction and self-actualization and this leads us to the last problem impeding implementation of CLIL: that is the question of reward. CLIL courses cost a university two- or even threefold more than courses delivered in the lecturer’s native language. As most universities in the world, even the biggest of them, like PRUE, have to struggle for fund-raising, this additional financial burden may be very heavy for the University to carry if implemented on an overall basis. Therefore full-scale introduction of CLIL is hardly possible in the near future and the only alternative to it is EPP. EPP at PRUE Course description

The structure of language studies at PRUE is as follows: Master (elective) Bachelor 4 Year – EPP (elective) Bachelor 3 Year – Business English course (elective) Bachelor 1-2 Year – General English course (obligatory)

As can be seen from the figure EPP is an elective course offered for senior Bachelor and Master students. Irrespective of the faculty and specialization (profile), it outnumbers all other elective courses and enjoys a great popularity with the students as it is directly linked with their future career and pay prospects, status expectations and so on. The duration of the course differs from faculty to faculty and ranges from 22 to 56 classroom hours, which is not much, of course. Being positioned as a foreign language course EPP aims to develop all language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing thus employing various teaching methods to do it. The main focus of the course is communication and competences building. Though feedback from our former graduates is generally positive and the majority of current learners are also very enthusiastic about it, there are some specific areas of teachers’ concern which still await scrutiny.


14

Areas of special concern Teaching resources for EPP in many cases seem to be a highly problematic area. When

EPP teachers start preparing their course looking for available textbooks, they discover that, unlike the abundance of various learning materials on Business English let alone General English for all levels, the choice of books for EPP courses is second to none. In all fairness, it should be noted that some EL publishers have recently made quite successful attempts to fill in this gap in the market, for example, the Cambridge University Press "Professional English in Use" series, or Pearson Longman “Market Leader” Business English series, and some others, but still there is a long way ahead to cater for the narrow specialization the graduates will seek. Thus while preparing for EPP course language teachers drench themselves in authentic textbooks on Professional English; textbooks prepared by local language teachers; professional subject textbooks, relevant websites and their own materials specially created for other courses, – composing a unique blend of carefully selected material, modern approaches and innovative techniques.

Besides, approaches to teaching subject matter differ from country to country. As far as we know, no deep research on comparability of the study plans and classroom curricula on different subjects between Russia and English-speaking countries has been conducted so far. But even from the bird’s eye view it may be noted that the contents of the textbook on some subjects in Russian are so much different from the corresponding books from Great Britain that you may get the impression that they teach different subjects. As a result, while reading authentic textbooks many Russian students simply don’t recognize the issues related to their future profession. Sometimes this fact creates a real mess at a lesson when neither students nor the teacher can make out what the text is about. Moreover, very often topics, which we start teaching in English following the order of the textbook contents, have not yet been studied by the students in their native language because their subject curriculum covers them only some time ahead. As a result, a language teacher has to explain the complicated things far beyond the limits of a language teacher professional requirements.

Second comes the teacher factor. As in any other profession, “teachers must have the knowledge and skills required in order to properly perform their duties” (Zabalza, 2004) and EPP teachers also feel a great responsibility for the quality of their work, though in case with EPP it is much more demanding than with other language courses. Being neither a pure language course nor an academic subject taught in English, EPP is unstably positioned somewhere between them when the background linguistic education pulls the teacher towards traditional methods of language teaching whereas the material itself pushes them towards Content Based Language Instruction (CBI) and Task Based Language Learning (TBLL). Successful teaching of EPP is impossible without a deep insight into the contents of the subject, the professional jargon of which they attempt to train. All vocabulary-building exercises such as multiple choice, definitions, matching, etc. require not only the ability to translate the specific terms into one’s mother tongue but to understand their meaning as well. Nor can an EPP teacher trigger students’ discussions of the issues which he/she is unaware of. Using even specially prepared conventional format textbooks for EPP requires very serious preparation from the teachers, otherwise any attempts to teach students the language of the subjects, where language teachers have no background, are in many cases doomed to fail. So, in a nutshell, unlike General and Business English teacher whose job is most likely to choose one good textbook among the existing abundance supplemented with a detailed teacher’s book, hand-out materials, CD, video, tests, etc., and just follow the precise instructions, an EPP teacher has to plan each lesson very carefully, find energizing materials from different sources, either copy or send them via e-mail, draw up tests, etc., which is very time- and labour-consuming.

Teachers are life-long learners and this inherent thirst for further self-development and self-actualization drives most daring of our colleagues to step into the unknown areas of


15

finance, accounting, marketing, commodity research, etc. which are often a universe beyond their background education and traditional professional requirements of a language teacher. Many senior students are quite advanced in the subject matter, while EPP language teachers have to teach them the language of the subject they may know very little about. What’s more, as EPP teachers are expected to cover an exorbitantly broad range of topics for discussion, this unfeasibility of the task to be “Jack of all trades” discourages many experienced teachers with a very good command of a foreign language from joining the EPP teacher community because they don’t want to look incompetent in the eyes of their students. The lack of financial incentives to compensate for the special difficulty of EPP courses (language teachers receive the same hourly pay irrespective of what they are teaching) also demotivates many of them. During the panel discussions with the colleagues many of foreign language teachers highlighted the idea that one needs a much higher level of professional expertise and qualification and has to spend much more time preparing for EPP lessons than for General English classes, as there is a big difference in discussing “your friends” and the “types of securities” or “Leveraged Buy-Outs” at a lesson. As a result, the pool of potential EPP teachers is shrinking from year to year and those most persistent ones face more and more challenges. We have a big record of teachers who in order to enhance their professional development, raise their profile and diversify their portfolio dared to immerse themselves into delivering EPP courses but just after one year of occasionally painful experience shifted back towards teaching General and Business English where they feel more comfortable and professionally confident. Moreover, we should not forget that the older the students are, the more demanding they become to the quality of the lesson and proficiency of the teacher.

And finally, despite the popularity of EPP courses with the students, learner factor, which is obviously all-important, may impose serious constraints on EPP success. As at EPP classes the groups are very large (no fewer than 25 students) each teacher has to deal with the group heterogeneity where students’ knowledge may range from low-intermediate to advanced. Inexperienced teachers often fall in a trap of opting for a medium compromise level, thus leaving the brightest and the weakest students feel frustrated and dissatisfied. In addition, it should be noted that, as the Russian Federation is a multilingual country, about 15 – 35 % of learners in each student group have others but Russian mother tongues, therefore for them Russian is the second language, English is the third. Conclusion and recommendations

Teaching EPP shouldn’t be confused with teaching a professional subject in English. Conversely, during EPP class the teacher has to maintain a balance between teaching an academic subject and a foreign language.

Having considered such relevant to teaching EPP factors as teacher factor, learner factor, teaching resources, management factor as well as reward factor we conclude that the successful implementation of an EPP course to the large extend depends on the integrated interdisciplinary approach where a proper balance between foreign language and academic subject studies as well as pedagogical innovations would derive the sought-after competence development for the future specialists in different sectors of economic.

To expose our students to new challenges and facilitate students’ self-study and self-directed learning when the role of the EPP teacher is more shifted to that of a motivator we suggest: giving first priority to such training activities that develop critical thinking, most of which being centered around task-based learning to enhance competence-based approach; making obligatory for the students to choose themes for their interactive presentations in EPP classroom connected with their exit research paper and include information from it;


16

encouraging undergraduate students to defend their diploma thesis in English following the requirement of the Ministry of Education of Russia to have each exit paper in Russian prefaced with an abstract in English; supporting students’ and post-graduates’ participation in interdisciplinary scientific conferences in English and promoting research results at beyond university level.

To facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration with the professional departments, to increase EPP teacher motivation and streamline EPP courses at PRUE we suggest: providing short induction courses in the academic subject for EPP teachers to increase their awareness what the course is about and consult them on the areas of special concern; harmonizing, where possible, the university study plans to make sure that students study the topic first in their own language and only then supplement it in English to minimize overtaking of EPP course ahead of professional one to avoid confusion in students’ heads; involving more English-speaking Russian natives PREU lecturers from each specialized department to participate in joint projects of creating up-to-date bilingual glossaries of professional jargon for each narrow field of study where students specialize; creating language courses for the academic subject teachers where both the language teacher and specialists in their lecture field will be able to contribute to one another’s professional development; continuing the work of educating subject teachers in English in order to achieve better collaboration with them in aligning the programs of EPP course and their subject; organizing regular workshops for EPP and subject teachers to interchange professional knowledge, innovative methodology and expertise. References: Bocanegra-Valle, Ana. Evaluating and Designing Materials for the ESP Classroom. In English for Professional and Academic Purposes. Utrecht Studies in Language and Communication. Amsterdam - New York, NY: Rodopi B.V., 2010. Brinton, D. M., Snow, M. A., and Wesche, M. B. Content-Based Second Language Instruction. New York: Newbury House, 1989. Council of Europe. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Council of Europe . From Linguistic Diversity to Plurilingual Education: Guide for the Development of Language Education Policies in Europe. Main version. Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 2007. (Also available at: http://www.coe.int/lang) Douglas D. Assessing Languages for Specific Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Engberg, J. Languages for specific purposes. In Brown, K. (ed) Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2nd edition), Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2006. Fraenkel,J.R and Wallen,N.E. How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education (3rd ed.). New York: MacGraw-Hill, Inc., 1996. Gijselaers, W. H. Connecting Problem-Based Practices With Educational Theory. In L. Wilkerson and W. H. Gijselaers (Eds.), Bringing Problem-Based Learning to Higher Education: Theory and Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996. Gunnarsson, B.-L. Historical Studies in Different Traditions. In Brekke, M., Andersen, O., Dhal, T. and Myking, J. (eds) Applications and Implications of Current LSP Research (vol. 2). Norway. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget, 1994. Helm S. Market Leader Accounting and Finance. England: Pearson Longman, 2010. Hewings, M. A History of ESP through English for Specific Purposes. In ESP World, 2002. (http://www.esp-world.info/Articles_3/ Hewings_paper.htm)


17

Hutchinson, T., Waters A. English for Specific Purposes: A learning-Centered Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Kelly K. Ingredients for successful CLIL. ( http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/keith-kelly-ingredients-successful-clil-0) Larsson, Jon. Problem-Based Learning: A possible Approach to Language Education? Polonia Institute, Jagiellonian University, 2001. Retrieved 27 January 2013. Littlewood, W. Communicative Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981. MacKenzie I. Professional English in Use: Finance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006 MacKenzie I. English for the Financial Sector. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008 Marsh, D. et al. (eds) Developmental Aspects of Plurilingual Education: Seminar and Field Notes, Workplace Communication, Continuing Education Centre, University of Jyväskylä, Finland, 1997. Marsh, D. and Wolff, D. (eds.) Diverse Contexts -Converging Goals: CLIL in Europe. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2007. Mehisto, P., Marsh, D. and Frigols, M. Uncovering CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning in Bilingual and Multilingual Education. Oxford: Macmillan, 2008. Patten, Lee and Patten, Van. Components of Second Language Teacher Education. New York : McGraw-Hill, 1997. Resnick, L. B., and Klopfer, L. E. Toward the Thinking Curriculum. In Resnick, L. B. and Klopfer, L. E. (Eds.), Toward the Thinking Curriculum: Current cognitive research. Reston, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1989. Ruiz-Garrido M.F., Palmer-Silveira J.C. and Fortanet-Gomez I. Current Trends in English for Professional and Academic Purposes. In English for Professional and Academic Purposes. Utrecht Studies in Language and Communication. Amsterdam - New York, NY: Rodopi B.V., 2010. Willis, J. A. Framework for Task-Based Learning. Harlow. England: Pearson Longman, 1996. VanPatten, Bill; Benati, Alessandro G. Key Terms in Second Language Acquisition. London: Continuum, 2010. Wall D. Language Test Construction and Evaluation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011 Ypsilandis, G.S. and Kantaridou, Z. English for Academic Purposes: Case Studies in Europe, Revista de Lingüística y Lenguas Aplicadas. Vol 2, 2007. Zabalza, M. A. O Ensino Universitário: Seu Cenário e Protagonistas (University education: Its scenery and actors). Porto Alegre, B.R.: Artmed Editora, 2004. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/content-language-integrated-learning http://www.onestopenglish.com/clil/what-is-clil/ http://www.factworld.info/ http://www.learning-theories.com/problem-based-learning-pbl.html http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/ijpbl/ (The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning (IJPBL)


18

A LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF PUN EXPRESSIONS IN JOURNALISTIC ARTICLES IN JORDAN

Yousef Bader Department of English, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan

Abstract This study is a linguistic and cultural analysis of some pun expressions published

recently in two Jordanian daily newspapers in Arabic. The study responds to calls by Delabatista (1997) and Ritchie (2004) to carry out studies on pun that deal with analysis of its practical uses rather dwell on categorization issues and theoretical backgrounds. The survey finds numerous cases of wordplay in these articles, some of which fall under the category of humor, but many, contrary to what was stated before, cannot be categorized under humor because they refer to recent bloody infighting in the Arab World, especially Syria, and they actually call for tears rather than laughter. Types of word play used include the homographic, homonymic, onomastic, and other types discussed in the literature. The new thing in this study is the case of playing on similarities between two words in taw different languages like Arabic and English to produce a respectable pun.

Keywords: Journalistic articles, Jordan Introduction Definition of Humor and Pun

Pun is a form of word play usually defined as a "deliberate communicative strategy, or the result thereof, used with a specific semantic or pragmatic effect in mind." (Delabatista, 1997:2). Word play itself is the general name for various textual strategies in which authors exploit the structure of a language to bring about two similar forms with similar meanings (Delabatista, 1996). The last author bases his definition on Adison (1982), who maintains that pun relies on the use of two words that agree in sound (homophones or homonyms) but differ in meaning (polysemes). Similarly, The Free Wikipedia Encyclopedia defines pun, also called paronomasia, as a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings of words or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary puts it simply as "the humorous use of a word in a way that suggests two interpretations."

For his part, Partington(2009) defines pun in a more phonetic way as "the bisociative play between two sound sequences." (p. 1794). He adds that "the relationship between the different meanings of the two word sequences…will affect its quality, its success or failure." (Ibid.)

Arab authors agree with the above definitions of pun, called tawriyah in Arabic. For example, Al-Hamawi (837 A.H.) states that it consists in using one word with two meanings, one denotational and the other metaphorical. The first is the close meaning and the second is remote. Usually, the speaker or the writer aims at the remote meaning. Similarly, Al-Muraghi (2000:338) focuses on what he calls the "near" and "far" meanings of one single word used for pun.

Scholars like Leech (1969:209), Newmark (1988) and Delabatista (1997) emphasize the homonymous and polysemous nature of words used in pun or word play. They mention the homonymous (different words having identical forms) nature of a word like bank, as in the bank of the river and the bank for money storing, and the polysemic (one word having


19

different but related senses) characteristic of another word like foot, as in the foot of the man, the foot of the mountain and the foot-long snake.

Pun is common in literary texts, cinema, and television comedy shows. It also pervades many journalistic articles these days. These so-called ironic or sarcastic columns tackle people's and governments' daily problems in a humorous way, attracting readers and making them fully aware of these problems. Nelson (1978:264) considers irony, satire and pun as varieties of humor found a lot in magazines and newspapers. Rosenthal (quoted in Shunnaq 1996:102) claims that the humor of pun and other verbal jokes derives from the fact that humans express their ideas and feelings through circumscribed and logical elements. Any deviation from these elements, it is added, is felt as a release from conventional restrictions and is, therefore, humorous.

Pun is also used in advertisements to attract attention and make people dwell on the topic (Djafavora, 2008) and in fables which often tolerate more than one meaning (Tragesser and Lippman, 2005). Puns is equally found in the Bible, in orthography (the case of Japanese Kyoka), and in film titles.

In "Pun for the Ages" (The New York Times, March 28, 2008), Joseph Tartakovsky mentions different meanings of pun according to different poets, writers and critics. For example, pun for John Dryden is "the lowest and most groveling kind of wit: For Ambrose Bierce, however, it is "a form of wit to which wise men stoop and fools aspire."

Nordquist (2013) indicates that puns show the arbitrary nature of language – the same sounds can mean such radically different things. "Punning can also be viewed as a test of one's power over other participants in the communicative act." (Delabatista, 1996:140).

"Wordplay can be considered as a strategy of verbal interaction which aims to test our ingenuity both for ourselves and against the cognitive skills of our interlocutors, which may either confirm our superiority over the addressee, or join the speaker and the addressee in a bond of equal power and solidarity." (Op. cit.:152)

Many puns are based on either homonymy (i.e. two different words have an identical form) or polysemy (i.e. a word has different but related senses), and what is at a certain point in time understood as a single polysemous word may well be the result of the merger of two distinct words which happened to have similar forms. Conversely, two meanings of a single polysemous word may get dissociated to the point of breaking up the sense of word identity and growing apart into separate words. For example, 'metal' and 'mettle' are in modern English felt to be two unrelated words but in Elizabethan English there was one word with uncertain spelling having several senses including "metal, substance,and temperament/spirit', between which existed a logical connection (Delabatista, 1994:5)

The study of word pun takes one to the heart of communication, hovering and oscillating, as the pun does, between meaning and form, intention and understanding, between semantics and pragmatics, between langue and parole, between rhetorical control and inept purposeless expression, and cutting across virtually all genre or text type distinctions. (Op. cit.: 9)

Puns never came close to attracting the amount of professional interest to which they may stake a claim. The specialists of language and the acknowledged judges of taste have all stored it away in categories such as 'mannerism', 'poetic licence', 'light verse', and the like, meaning that they marginalize it and disqualify it although it is worthy serious investigation, but now puns and ambiguities are in the process of becoming more respectable research topics. (Ibid.) Classification of Pun

Many scholars (Leech, 1969; Newmark, 1988; Delabatista, 1994 and 1997, to cite just a few) have tried to classify pun into different typologies, but it seems that wordplay is


20

difficult to classify. The classification below summarizes the different attempts by different authors, but it remains lacking and sometimes repetitive.

Homophonic pun: this kind uses word pairs which are homophones (sound alike) but are not synonyms. Example is George Calin’s statement "Atheism is a non-prophet institution". The word prophet here is used instead of 'profit", which is the usual word used in expressions like non-profit organizations.

Homographic or heteronymic pun; this pun uses words that are spelled the same but have different meanings and sounds. Example is Douglas Adam's line "You can tune a guitar, but you can't tuna fish unless of course you play bass." This line contains two types of pun: first, a homophonic pun shown clearly in the words tune and tuna; second, a homographic pun in the word bass in which there is some kind of ambiguity reached through the identical spelling of 'bass', a string instrument and 'bass', a kind of fish.

Homonymic pun: this kind includes exploitation of words which are both homographs and homophones. Example is Isaac Azimov's statement "Did you hear about the little moron who strained himself while running into the screen door?" The word strained carries the two meaning "gave much effort' and 'filtered'.

Compound pun; includes a statement that contains two or more puns. Example is Richard Whately's complex statement "Why can't a man starve in the Great Desert? Because he can eat the sand which is there, but what brought sandwiches there? Noah sent Ham and his descendants mustered and bred." The pun here is first in the phrase sand which is, which is homophonic with sandwiches, and, second, in the homonymic words Ham (Noah's son) and ham (kind of pig meat), mustered/mustard, and bred/bread.

Recursive pun: here, the second aspect of the pun relies on the understanding of an element in the first aspect. Example is the statement "Infinity is not in finity", which means that infinity is not in the finite range.

Visual pun: the pun aspects are replaced by a picture and this kind is sometimes used in cartoons like "The Far side".

Naming or onomastic wordplay (Kaufmann) fulfills an important role in the scriptures, literary and semi-literary works ranging from Asterix comic strips to Dante and Dickens (e.g. Oliver Twist). (Delabatista, 1997)

Another subtype of puns is idiom-based pun or puns in which idioms are manipulated in such a way as to obtain a playful humorous effect. Such pun involves a conflict between the compositional, literal reading of the idiom and its accepted figurative meaning, such as in the idiom 'to be in the doghouse’. (Delabatista 1994, 15). Veisberg (1996), in Delabatista (ed.), dedicates an article to idiomatic pun in translation, calling on translators to "strive for equivalent effect" (p. 155). The data are taken from Latvian, Russian and German translations of Oscar Wilde and Lewis Carroll. Different techniques are suggested to render a similar effect, such as the use of an equivalent idiom, a loan translation, an extension, an analogue transformation, substitution, compensation, loss of wordplay, and metalingual comment. Priorities of technique choice have to be considered according to individual cases and in light of the constraints under which the translator is operating. (p. 155) Humor in Pun

The humor of a pun depends very much on the "expectations shared by the framer of the message and the addressee and on the way the latter is taken by surprise and plunged into something entirely different from what s/he has been prepared for" (Delabatista, 1996:138). "Punning should also be considered in relation to another important aspect of human nature, namely our own sense of humour and our desire to produce a humorous effect on the people we communicate with." (p.139)


21

Sinclair (2004) states that certain hearers/readers have certain predictions or expectations about how speakers/writers employ language organization principles. Wordplay upsets or exploits these organizational expectations, by relexicalization and rewording. For his part, Hoey (2005) provides a lexical-grammatical framework which sheds light on precisely what the linguistic expectations of hearers/readers are and how they come about in the first place.

Puns or wordplays are based commonly on a "confrontation or clash of two meanings" (Delabatista, 1996:138). One should notice too that puns "result not only from the confrontation of two (or more) different meanings of an identical or similar string of letters or sounds, but also from the clash between two (or more) domains of human knowledge and experience." (Ibid.) In this sense, punning is "a perfect illustration of the close ties between language and thought." (p.152)

The wordplay comic effect strength is determined by showing the distance between the domains of human knowledge and experiences and the way they are connected (Ibid.).

"Punning is possible in any language in so far as it seems to be universal feature of language to have words with more than one meaning (polysemy), different words with the same spelling or pronunciation (homographs and homophones) and words which are synonyms or near synonyms while having different pragmatic meanings and evoking different associations." (Delabatista 1996:138-9)

"Wordplay is inherently linked with the asymmetrical relationship between language and the extralinguistic world, which…is geared to the optimum use of our information processing system." (p.139). It is also dependent on the asymmetry between the more or less limited number of language signs and the much greater number of entities, events, and relationships we experience and try to describe by means of language." (p. 152) Studies on Pun

Of all forms of humor, plays on words and puns have received the bulk of attention in linguistic studies. They are the most obviously dependent on a form of wording, and therefore many authors have felt them to be the only kind of humor to constitute a proper object of linguistic studies (Partington, 2009). Attardo (1994:27) indicates that "between playing with an idea or a situation and playing on words, puns are felt to fall squarely into the second category." Partington (Op.cit.) claims, however, that many puns play with ideas as well as words and offers several examples from British newspapers headlines to illustrate his point.

Attardo (1994) indicates that past studies on pun dwelt mostly on "taxonomic" approaches and avoided real "explanatory patterns". In other words, linguistics, as he claims, has tended to give lists of different kinds of puns but has done relatively little to explain how they function in real-life discourse. Ritchie (2004) reflects a similar critical opinion of past research in this area and suggests practical or circumstantial problems in the study of naturally occurring wordplay. Hence, there is an urgent need to study and analyze naturally occurring wordplay and puns, and this is what the present paper intends to do in regard to some newspaper articles in Jordan.

Studies on pun, especially from a literary and translational points of view (e.g. Newmark, 1988; Al-Shamali, 1992; Delabatista, 1997; Girard, 2001; Al-Hafiz, 2002; Al-Homoud, 2007; Sayaheen, 2009; and Al-Shra'ah, 2010) are widespread. However, specifically linguistic and cultural works dealing with pun are still few in Arabic, especially with regard to journalistic texts. The use of pun, sarcasm, and irony has been expanding in journalism recently due to the freedom given to the media in the last decade in the Arab World and especially following what is called the "Arab Spring", which began in late 2010 and continued throughout 2011. In Jordan, daily articles by authors like Yousef Ghishan , Kamel Nusairat and Tal'at Shana'ah from Ad-Dustour newspaper and Ahmad Al-Zoubi, Abdel-Hadi Raji Al-Majali and others from Al-Rai are most noticeable for their richness in pun expressions and


22

sarcasm. Al-Zoubi's and Nusairat's word play were the subject of one MA thesis for each at Yarmouk University but from a translational perspective only. In the proposed study, recent articles by these columnists and a few others will be scrutinized for word play and pun and analyzed from linguistic and cultural perspectives. Many of the wordplay in these articles are derived from local culture and society. Some of it, however, concerns regional and even international politics, as will be seen below. Pun in Jordanian Newspaper articles

Newspaper articles or columns tackle the daily life issues and events that people face at the local, regional and international levels. Some of these articles are characterized by their ironic or sarcastic nature. Others criticize events or habits in a humorous way, to attract readers' attention and to make them focus more on the issues under consideration. When talking about humor in newspaper articles, Nelson (1978) classifies irony, satire and pun under humor. Thus, one usually studies pun within the scope of humor. Rosenthal (cited in Shunnaq 1996:102) states that the humor of pun and other forms of verbal jokes stems from the fact that human language moves in narrowly circumscribed and logical channels and any deviation from these channels is felt as a release from conventions and is, therefore, humorous. As will be seen in the examples discussed below, however, not all puns are humorous or motivate laughter, since some of them, having to do with current political or military turmoil in the Middle East, naturally generate a serious or a sad stance from regional (Arab) readers.

In what follows, several examples of wordplay selected from a large corpus of data collected over a period of two months (June –August 2013) are presented and analyzed from a linguistic and cultural perspective. The first two examples, however, are taken from Al-Shra'ah (2010), who discussed them in his MA thesis from a translational point of view, and go back to a period before 2010. They are analyzed here from a linguistic and cultural viewpoint. The first example is from one of Nusairat's articles, which is critical of local officials' carelessness and lack of responsibility: -?al-mas?uluuna na?imuu ?al-'aSr (lit. the officials are sleeping the mid-afternoon).

Stopping work and taking a nap or a siesta in the afternoon is a common practice in Jordan and most Arab and Mediterranean countries. Nusairat refers to this (cultural) practice in the above excerpt to create a wonderful pun. The pun is in the polysemy of the last word (?al-'aSr), which carries at least two meanings: mid-afternoon and a period of time including the present. Hence, the sentence can be paraphrased into two different meanings as follows: the officials are taking a mid-afternoon nap (literal, maybe real for these officials but unintended), and the officials are not aware of or are indifferent about what is happening at the present period of time (remote but intended). Nusairat in this humorous pun is critical of Jordanian officials who do not seem to be up to the events taking place inside and outside Jordan because they are like "sleeping".

The second example is also from Nusairat's articles and illustrates the helplessness of the Jordanian people in its remote meaning: -laa xayaara ladayna (lit. we have no cucumbers/choice)

This article was written when the prices of cucumbers reached three years ago unprecedented high levels and the vegetable became out of the reach of most Jordanians. Needless to say, cucumbers are an important commodity for all Jordanians and are consumed almost daily by most –if not all- of them either raw or in salads. The pun here is in the word xayaar, which actually has two meanings: cucumbers (near but actually unintended, although the author uses the occasion to complain also about the lack of cucumbers in Jordanian houses due to exorbitant prices of the vegetable) and choice (remote but intended). In fact, the sarcastic columnist seizes the opportunity of the exorbitant prices of cucumbers to lament the


23

situation of the Jordanians who have no 'choice', according to him, in the administration of their various (daily or even political, as can be understood by educated local people) affairs.

The following example is from Tal'at Shana'ah's daily columns in Ad-dustour newspaper and illustrates the examples of onomastic or naming puns: -Ru'yaa fii ramadaan (lit. vision in Ramadan)

The above expression is in fact the title of the article and makes one believe at first reading that the author is going to talk about a vision he had in the Holy month of fasting and special devotion for Muslims (the month of Ramadan). However, when one reads through, he discovers that Shana'ah is actually talking about a local TV channel called "Ru'yaa" and is praising the variety of its religious and comic entertaining programs during the month of Ramadan as opposed to the non-entertaining programs on the national Jordan television. The author is playing on the actual word (ru'yaa 'vision') and the name of the TV channel to underscore the fact that the relatively recent TV channel (Ru'yaa) had a really successful ru'yaa (vision) in Ramadan by attracting more viewers than other, including the long-established national television, channels. In retrospect, the author is ridiculing or criticizing the national channel's inability to offer programs that attract viewers.

This example also illustrates onomastic or naming pun. It is taken from one of Ahmad Hasan Al-Zoubi's articles in Al-Rai newspaper, which was published July 22, 2013. In the column, the author talks about a once successful local daily newspaper called "Al-'arab al-yawm" (lit. The Arabs Today), which decided lately to close down due to mismanagement and other problems. Al-Zoubi laments the fate of the newspaper, which, he says, he used to cherish so much. Then he creates a pun to lament not only the newspaper's fate but also that of the Arabs in general: -sa?altuh: "shloon il-'arab ilyoom?", wallah ya xaali ?ahmal min 'arab imbaariH (I asked him: How is/are the Arabs t/Today? I swear, Uncle, it is/they are worse than the Arabs of yesterday (the past)).

The author plays on the words ?al-'arab ?al-yawm by switching to Colloquial Jordanian pronunciation (il-'arab il-yoom) of the standard Arabic expression without any change in the written form; the colloquial variety is shown by the word shloon 'how', only used in the spoken form of Arabic. The expression carries two meanings: the first is near (because the topic is about the daily newspaper) but unintended and asks about the situation of the newspaper (How is the Arabs Today (newspaper)?); the second is remote (but intended) and asks about the situation of the Arabs themselves as a nation (How are the Arabs today?). Notice that is and are of the verb TO BE are not required in Arabic and the small and capital initial for the word today in the English translation show the two meanings of the pun. In fact, Al-Zoubi uses this wonderful wordplay to compare the lamentable situation of the once-thriving newspaper with that of the Arab countries today, with in-fighting and killing almost everywhere following the advent of the so-called "Arab Spring" in the year 2011 and after.

This example is from one of Shana'ah's daily columns in Ad-dustour. In it, he describes an invitation to iftaar ('breakfast', or the first meal of the day served following sunset during the Holy month of Ramadan) by Zain (local and regional mobile phone company). The invitees were a mix of officials, ambassadors, journalists, and others and there was an atmosphere of coldness and unsociability during the meal. But when the time came to smoke the argilah (waterpipe), a common practice by all classes of Jordanians these days, the situation changed, and Shana'ah writes: -wa jaa'at ?al-argiilah kamutanaffas wakulluhah ?anfaas wa-Tayyaba ?allaahu ?al-?anfaaas (lit. and the argilah came as an outlet; all took breaths, and may God make breaths/souls good) The author plays here on the double meaning of the second use of the word ?anfaas, which carries two meanings: the first is near and probably unintended; it is breaths (to refer to smoke breaths taken through the waterpipe or argilah, which usually make people's breath less repellent and more tolerable as the tobacco for the argilah carries different pleasant flavors).


24

This is the meaning that can be logically inferred from the context of talking about waterpipe smoking. The second meaning is remote but is probably intended by the author: May God make people's souls or spirits really good, which is a logical and understood invocation in the month of Ramadan, the fasting of which is intended to cleanse souls.

The sixth example is taken from one of Al-Zoubi's articles in Al-Rai Daily. In it, the author talks about Syrian refugees of the recent internal war (2011-2013 and still going on until the writing of this paper in the first months of 2014) on the occasion of the Refugee day on June 20 of each year. In emotional words, the persona or speaker (a refugee) addresses his country saying: -?atastaTii'a ?an tuharrib lii qiT'ata laylin min baladi lam tuHriquha qaTHiifah aww tumazziquha raSaaSah….limaaTHa, ?uriidu ?an ?atakaffana biha litakuuna "?al-kulaaSah/kalaaSah" (lit. Can you smuggle for me a piece of night from my country, which no shell could burn nor a bullet tear…Why? I want to wear it as a shroud to be my end/salvation).

The pun is in the last word which can, according to Arabic orthography which does not mark short vowels, be read into two different ways: kulaaSah (end/conclusion, which might be the near or unintended meaning) and kalaaSah (salvation), which may be the far or intended meaning. In this case, the Arabic script, which does not usually indicate short vowels, allows for this kind of pun (orthographic, as mentioned in the literature). However, in this specific example, it is difficult to say which meaning is intended or unintended and it could be assumed that both meanings were intended by the author, given the sad fate of Syrian refugees these days. If you assume that the refugee (speaker or persona) wished death (especially when talking about dead people's shrouds and the sad situation of the refugees), then the first meaning (end) is intended. But if we assume that the refugee wanted salvation (which is why he has become a refugee), then the second meaning (salvation) is intended. In sum, Arabic orthography and the unclear intended meaning of this pun have made of this wordplay an especially noticeable one, which is an example of a non-humorous wordplay as it refers to the sad situation of the Syrian refugees.

The pun in this example is also from Al-Zoubi of AL-Rai newspaper, who criticizes producers and television channels for the great quantity of 'drama" or shows designed to be aired during the Holy month of Ramadan. The author writes: -hall naHnuu bi-Haajah ?ila kull haaTHa al-kamm min ?al-draama fi'lan?... siyyama wa-?anna Hayaatana kullaha draama…siyaasatuna draama…?iqtiSaaduna drama…riyaaDatuna draama….Hayaatuna ?al-yawmiyyah ?al-'aadiyyah draama ?ayDan (Do we really need this huge amount of drama?... Especially that our whole life is a drama…our policies are a drama… our economy is a drama... our sports are a drama…our daily routine life is a drama too).

The author uses the word drama into two different meanings: the near but unintended (TV shows depicting complicated stories in real life) and a remote but intended one (tragic or tragedy) when he talks about our whole life, (government) policies, our economy, sports, and daily life. In fact, he sounds pessimistic and actually "dramatizes" the situation in Jordan by deploring the tragic and sad nature of almost everything in the citizen's life. Needless to say, the Arabic word draama carries almost the same meanings as its English equivalent, both of which come from the same Latin or Greek origin (Webster's Online Dictionary)

This example is also taken from the same article by Al-Zoubi. In it, he talks about the 'remote control' in the hands of the United States of America: -?al-rimoot bi-yadd ?al-wilaayaat ?al-muttaHiddah ?al-amriikiyyah, taTlub ?ash-shashah mata tashaa? wa-kayfa-ma tashaa? litaj'ala ?al-'aalam yutaabi' maa turiiduhu hiya…wa-'alaa mazaajiha(lit. the remote (control) is in the hands of the United States of America; it requests the screen whenever and however it wants to make the world watch what it really wants, according to its whims and wishes)


25

The word rimoot carries at least two meanings: the near but unintended and less important (the remote control for a televison set); the second meaning is the one which is remote but intended, i.e. the USA controls and directs what goes on in the world including dramas and tragedies. Stating it in a skillful way, the author uses this pun, in fact, to criticize the USA for causing the world to go through all this drama (tragedies). From the context, one can understand that the author refers especially to the current infighting in Iraq and Syria.

This example is also from the same article. Here, the pun is in the use of the word 'musallsal' (TV series): -bil-munaasabah ba'D maa tushaahidunahu min mawaaqif ?umamiyyah huna ?aww hunaak laa ta'duu ?an takuuna "di'aayaat" wa "fawaaSil ?i'laamiyyah" bayna musallsalayni mushta'ilayni biddammi wa-nnaar (lit. by the way, some of what you see regarding international positions are only "commercials" or "media breaks" between two series (shows) burning with blood and fire).

The author seems here to be talking about television series full of killings and tragedies (near but unintended meaning). However, he is in fact talking about real episodes of killing and violence in the Arab world, especially with reference to the Syrian scene, where international or Arab mediation is compared to commercial or information breaks between bloody episodes of violence.

This example is taken from Nusairat of Ad-dustour and talks about the persona or author's political affiliation: -HuTT raasak been ir-ruus wHaTTeet raasii fi'lan been ir-ruus waSirtu yasaariyyan falaa ir-ruus ?i'tarafuu bi ?illa ruus ilbaSal…. waba'da ?an Dayya't ir-ruus wuDi'at 'alayya nuqTah sawdaa? min ?al-amriikaan (lit. Put your head among other heads, and in fact I DID put my head among the heads (the Russians) and I became a leftist. Not even the (heads) Russians recognized me, except for the onion heads…. And after I lost the heads (Russians) I got a black mark from the Americans)

The author in this text plays on the many meanings of the Arabic word ruus, which carries at least three meanings in this text: the first two meanings are close but unintended (human heads and onion heads) and the third is remote but intended (the Russians). The author, I believe, wants to indicate that counting on the Russians will make the person who does so lose both the Russians' (who will not help him) and the Americans' support. Indirectly, the author is probably referring to the case of any regime head who counts a lot on Russian support. It is worth indicating here that the first four words in the excerpt represent the first part of a common colloquial saying in Jordanian which reads: HuTT raasak been ir-ruus wguul ya-gaTTaa' ir-ruus (put your head among other heads and say 'go ahead, head cutter'). This is said when it is impossible for one person to avoid a collective disaster and it represents a call to him to accept his as well as other people's fate. The reference to onion heads is not unclear here unless it is mentioned for the sake of humor only. .

This example is also taken from Nusairat who says: -dimuqraaTiyyatuna Tiflun xadaaj… mish ma'quul ?ish-sha'b kulluh ?al?aan yumaaris ?al-riDaa'ah… biddi ?anfaTim… mishaan ?allah Hadaa yifTimnii (Our democracy is a premature child (needing an incubator)… It is impossible that the whole people is now being breastfed… I want to get weaned… For God's sake, may somebody wean me!)

This quotation carries two interrelated wordplays at least. The first concerns the word riDaa'ah (breastfeeding) which carries the literal near meaning (actual breasfeeding) and the remote and figurative but intended meaning (the people being treated like babies by government officials). This latter meaning criticizes the government for not treating people like adults who can democratically elect their own representatives and officials. The second wordplay is in the word ?anfaTim (get weaned) which carries the literal but probably unintended meaning (to get actually weaned from breastfeeding) and the figurative but


26

intended sense (to become and be treated like an adult). The author here calls on the government to treat its people like adults capable of running a real democracy.

The two examples here are actually wordplays on ideas in the sense of Partington (2009). The first one is taken from Nusairat and reads: -bibsi Hajim 'ashaa?iri (tribal size Pepsi (bottle))

The author is ridiculing here the exorbitant spending on banquets in Jordan and talks about the need for a Pepsi bottle that would be enough for the whole tribe (thousands of people), which is of course impossible, but the idea is presented in such a way as to play on the idea of jumbo or giant banquets offered by certain rich tribal people in Jordan.

In the second example, Nusairat refers to the "goodness" and malleability of the Jordanian people, saying: -?al-muwaaTin ?al-urdunii 'ajiinah Tayyibah…. yastaTii'u ?al-Mas?uuluuna ?an yushakkiluuhu kaifa shaa?uu (the Jordanian citizen is a good dough… The officials can shape him whatever way they like)

The wordplay on the two meanings of the word dough is clear here: it compares between the original meaning of dough "mixed flour and water" and its other figurative meaning "soft substance" to emphasize the flexibility and malleability of the Jordanian citizen who can be manipulated by government officials to accept any (economic) decision they take.

The following two examples play on the homographic nature of near-puns (Delabatista, 1997). In the first example, the author Ramzi Al-Ghazwi from Ad-Dustour criticizes the General Secondary School Examination or Al-Tawjihi which is held every year in Jordan for high school seniors, saying that it causes so much fear among students and their families and sometimes leads to painful tragedies: -foobia (xawf) ?al-tawjiihi or ?al-tawjii'i (phobia or fear from al-tawjihi or the pain-causer).

The author here replaces the letter h with the letter ' to underscore the difficulties and pain resulting from holding the yearly examination, although it is a well-established one. Although the exam is required for university admission, the author thinks it is no more necessary.

The second example is taken from Yousef Ghishan from Ad-Dustour too. In it, he makes fun of a statement by a Jordanian official that Jordan will become a nuclear energy exporter by the year 2030. He uses a similar technique as the one used by Al-Ghazwi, i.e. replacing one letter with another: -sanuSbiHu ?a'Daa? fii munaZZamit OTEC (munZZamit ?ad-duwal ?al-muSaddirah liTTaqah) (We will become members in OEEC (Organization of Energy Exporting Countries)

It is clear how the author plays here on the words OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) and OTEC (in Arabic) and OEEC (for English translation) to ridicule the Jordanian official's statement, given the fact that Jordan is still in the planning stage of building a nuclear reactor.

This example is taken from Nusairat and says: -La'alli min ?alqalaa?il fii ?al-Urdun ?al-lathiina tamakkanu min ?al-laff 'ala ?an-naas fii ramadaan (I may be one of the few people in Jordan who have been able to go around to/ fool people in Ramadan)

The author plays here on the double meaning of the word ?al-laff: the near and common but untended meaning : go around to see people, and the remote but intended (fool/deceive, especially regarding commodity prices). The author is referring here to a common local practice where some merchants exploit the desire of people to shop in the Holy month of Ramadan to raise unlawfully the prices of things, counting on people's goodness to take any price.

This example is taken from one of Ibrahim Abdel-Majeed Al-Qaisi articles written towards the end of June 2013 in Ad-dustour on the occasion of the G8 Summit held in


27

Northern Ireland, during which a Western official called on the Syrian regime and the Opposition to destroy Al-Qaida: -yajib 'ala ?an-niZaam ?al-suurii wal-mu'aaraDah ?al-iltizaam bitaddmiir kul ?al-munaZZamaat ?al-murtabiTah bil-qaa'idah walam yuuDIH ?akthar 'an ?al-qaa'idah walaakinani ?as-taTii'u ?al-qawl ?anaha laysat qa'idat arxamiidis 'an Hajim ?al-saa?il ?almuzaaH, ?allati yumkin tawZiifuha min ajli fahmin ?awsa' li'amaliyyat ?al-nuzuH ?al-suurii ba'da Huluul ?al-qawaa'id makan ?ash-sha'b ?as-suurii fii ba'D ?il-mudun walquraa wal-?ariyaaf (lit. The Syrian regime and opposition must commit themselves to destroy all the organizations linked to Al-Qaida. He did not make it more clear about Al-Qaida, but I can say that it is not Archimedes' Law about the volume of displaced liquid, which can be used to better understand the Syrian "displacement" after different Al-Qaidas took the place of the Syrian people in some cities, villages and rural communities)

Al-Qaisai is here ridiculing the feasibility of destroying Al-Qaida (the Jihadist Organization opposing the West and fighting against the Regime in Syria) by both the Regime and the Opposition by playing on the different meanings of the Arabic word ?al-qaa'idah: first, the near well-known meaning (The Jihadist Organization) and the second , remote but intended (law or laws governing natural things and people's lives). The author doubts that this destruction is possible because "many al-qaidas" are there in Syria and these took the place of the Syrian people who fled their towns and villages to other places. The reference to Archimedes' Law here is intended to show yet another meaning of the word ?al-qaa'idah and is used to add humor to the story.

This example also plays on the homography of actually two different words from different language sources. It is taken from one of Shana'ah's articles published after Eid il-fitr (End of fasting) – August 2013. In it, the author talks about the best and worst shows he saw during the Holy month of Ramadan that preceded Eid il-fitr: -?aswaa? faqarah fii ?as-saa'ah wannisf koomiidia faqarat raania shoo…'alaa shuu? (The worst part of the one-hour–and-a-half comedy was The Rania Show…For what?)

Here, the English word 'show", also used in Arabic with the same pronunciation, and the colloquial Arabic word 'shuu" (what) are spelled the same in the Arabic script and the author uses this similarity to express his dissatisfaction with the Rania Show broadcast on Ru?ya Televison during Ramadan. He actually states that this Rania Show cannot be really called a show by asking the question ?alaa shuu 'for what?'.

This last example has been used by several authors to ridicule statements by several Israeli leaders that Israel is ready for peace with the Arabs: -?israa?eel musta'iddah lis-salaam ma' il-'arab (Israel is ready for peace with/to greet the Arabs)

The Arabic word salaam actually carries two meanings: the first is near but unintended (peace) and the second is remote but intended (greeting). The various authors here want to stress that the Israeli leaders do not really want peace with the Arabs (because if they really did, they would have withdrawn from occupied Arab territories) but only intend to say hello or shake hands with the Arabs in meetings and peace conferences. Conclusion

This paper has dealt with the issue of analyzing wordplay or pun in actual use in writing. It has chosen the field of columns by some satirical authors in two locally well-known Jordanian newspapers. The study thereby responds to calls by well-known authorities in the field of pun like Delabatista (1996 and 1997), Ritchie (2004), and Partington (2009) who advocated practical works on wordplay as a step forward from mere theoretical works. Data collection has revealed a large corpus of data in which pun is utilized; only seventeen examples have been chosen for analysis and discussion due to their relevance to the current local (Jordanian) and regional (Mid-eastern) situations. Different types of pun, most of which


28

are based on the concept of polysemy, have been found to exist in Jordanian journalistic texts, especially the homographic, homonymic and onomastic kinds. In addition, the study has uncovered numerous cases of wordplay on phonetically similar words in two different languages, namely Arabic and English, which could create a wonderful pun. Unlike previous statements that pun always falls under humor, the present study has found out that pun is not always designed for happy laughter. Indeed, some cases of wordplay discussed in the paper call for tears and agony rather than laughter because they deal with current infighting in some Arab countries, especially Syria. It is hoped that the present study will open the door for more studies on pun in other Jordanian and Arab newspapers, especially those affiliated with local parties and groups and some electronic ones. Such practical studies will undoubtedly shed more light on the widespread use and functions of wordplay to determine its universality and practical value. Note

The following phonetic symbols are used in the transliteration of Arabic forms: Consonants Arabic Alphabet Symbol Description Glottal stop ? ء b Voiced bilabial stop ب t Voiceless dento-alveolar stop ت th Voiceless inter-dental fricative ث j Voiced alveopalatal affricate ج H Voiceless pharyngeal fricative ح x Voiceless uvular fricative خ d Voiced dento-alveolar stop د TH Voiced alveolar fricative ذ r Voiced alveo-palatal trill ر z Voiced alveolar fricative ز s Voiceless alveolar fricative س sh Voiceless alveopalatal fricative ش S Voiceless alveolar emphatic fricative ص D Voiced alveolar emphatic stop ض T Voiceless dento-alveolar emphatic stop ط Z Voiced alveolar emphatic fricative ظ Voiced pharyngeal fricative ' ع gh Voiced uvular fricative غ f Voiceless labio-dental fricative ف q Voiceless uvular stop ق k Voiceless velar stop ك l Voiced alveolar lateral ل m Voiced bilabial nasal م n Voiced alveolar nasal ن h Voiceless glottal fricative ـه w Voiced labio-velar glide و y Voiced palatal glide ي Vowels: Short Long a Mid low aa Mid low i High front ii High front


29

u High back rounded uu High back rounded References: Al-Hafiz, A. 2002. "Problems in Translating English Journalistic Texts into Arabic." International Journal of Translation 14:1,76-103. Al-Homoud, E. 2007. Translatability of Pun in the Poetry of Ahmad Matar: A Study of his Latafat. MA Thesis, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan. Attardo, Salvatore. 1994. Linguistic Theories of Humor. New York: Mouton. Al-Shamali, M. 1992. Managing in Translating English Journalistic Texts into Arabic. MA Thesis, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan. Al-Shra'sh, M. Translatability of Pun in Sarcastic Articles from Arabic into English: A Case Study. MA Thesis, Yarmouk University, Irbid,Jordan. Delabatista, D. 1994. Focus on the Pun: Wordplay as a Special Problem in Translation Studies. Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rod Opi. Delabatista, D. 1996. Wordplay and Translation (vol.2). Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. Delabatista, D. 1997. Traductio: Essays on Punning and Translation. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. Girard, A. 2001. "On the Relative Untranslatability of Puns." Retrieved Febr.26, 2012 from http://www.Multilingual/Webmaster.com. Hoey, Michael. 2005. Lexical priming: A New Theory of Words and Language. London: Routledge. Leech, G.N. A linguistic Guide to English Poetry. New York: Longman. Newmark, P. 1988. A Textbook of Translation. London: Prentice Hall. Nordquist, Richard. 2013. "Notes on Pun". Retrieved July 7, 2013 from www.About.com Guide. Oxford Online Dictionary. Partington, Alan Scott. 2009. "A Linguistic Account of Wordplay: The Lexical grammar of punning." Journal of Pragmatics 41,9:1794-1809. Preminger, Alex. 1986. The Princeton Handbook of Poetic Terms. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Ritchie, Graeme. 2004. The Linguistic Analysis of Jokes. London: Routledge. Sayaheen, B. 2009. The Translation of Culture-Specific Ironic Expressions. MA Thesis, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan. Shunnaq, A. 1996. "Semanticity, Pragmaticity, and Translatibility of Jokes in North Jordan." International Journal of Translation 8:1-2. Sinclair, John. 2004. Trust the Text: Language, Corpus and Discourse. London: Routledge. Tartakovsky, J. 2008. "Pun for the Ages." The New York Times (March 8, 2008). Retrieved Jan. 20, 2012.


30

THE SECOND LANGUAGE INFLUENCE ON FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNERS’ ERRORS: THE CASE OF THE

FRENCH LANGUAGE FOR ALGERIAN STUDENTS LEARNING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Aissa Hanafi Chlef University (Algeria)

Abstract Various researchers have concentrated on those errors which demonstrate the influence of one’s native language to second language acquisition. Some would consider them as inhibitory while others pointed out that they are facilitative. The present study shed light on another sphere of interference errors that occur in tri-lingual societies. The scope of the study was narrowed to focus on the role performed by the French language in the frequency of errors made by the Algerian students in their English as Foreign Language (EFL) learning. The study adopted a contrastive approach to discover whether this role is inhibitory or facilitative. The plain task was to give students a text to translate from French to English( version A) .The students were then asked to translate the same text from Arabic to English(version B).A chart was designed to compare the frequency , the type and the degree of severity of errors in both versions of translation. The analysis of the results in the chart showed that the students made less number of errors in the version (A) translation compared with version (B).Hence, the role of the French language in The EFL learning for Algerian students seems rather facilitative.

Keywords: Foreign language, second language, algerian students Introduction Language transfer (also known as L1 interference, linguistic interference, and cross meaning) refers to speakers or writers applying knowledge from their native language to a second language. There has been much debate upon the importance of the second language interference. Scholars still argue if this interference is beneficial for both teachers and learners or not. According to some scholars, the transfer can be positive when knowing one language can aid in developing skills for a second language. Alternatively, others claim that the transfer can be negative when understanding one language complicates the understanding of another language. The present paper will make the scope larger when it tests the learners’ competence that would exceed one second language learning or what is best described as multilingual acquisition , i.e. “the acquisition of languages other than the first or second” (Cenoz, 1997).More precisely the study is devoted to depict the interference of both Arabic (students’ mother tongue) and French( students’ second language) in English (students’ foreign language) in the case of Algerian EFL students .The study contrastive analysis hypothesis postulated the existence of positive transfer, resulting from similarity between languages( French and English), and negative transfer , stemming from difference between languages ( Arabic and English).


31

Theoretical development of error analysis Before tackling the practical side of the study scope we find it important to highlight some theoretical issues that has characterised the development of error analysis since the introduction of the Second Language Acquisition approach. Acquisition of multiple languages

Chomsky brought to the fore the notion of universal grammar claiming that human learning in general and language acquisition in particular are explainable in terms of an innate human capacity aiding the generation of an infinite number of sentence patterns. Hence, the innate learners’ rule formation capacity is resorted to in another language acquisition, i.e. the learners form hypotheses about target language rules and test them in practice. Cenoz (1997) points out that although multilingual acquisition is often considered as a variation of bilingualism and SLA, it is in fact more complex than the latter because it depends not only on the factors and processes involved in SLA but also on the interactions between the multiple languages being learned. It is upon that “bridge” of such interactions that target surface or deep structure of the multiple language influence and get influenced either by negative or positive change. Moreover, Cenoz(1997) explains that there is also more diversity and complexity in multilingual acquisition if we consider other factors such as the age when the different languages are acquired, the environment in which each of the languages is acquired, or the typological distance among the languages involved .More importantly the interactions between the L1 ,L2 and L3, which may be envisaged as a triad ,are reciprocal; whereas, those between L1 and L2, L1 and L3 are probably best visualized as unidirectional if L1 is the learner’s native language because whatever influence L2 and L3 might exert on the mother tongue it might be less significant when compared to the influence of L1 on L2 and L3.

Multilingual acquisition of language

According to Cenoz ( 2OOO) there are at least four possibilities with L3 acquisition orders: i) the three languages are acquired one after the other (L1→L2→L3); ii) L2 and L3 are acquired simultaneously after L1 (L1→L2/L3); iii) L1 and L2 are acquired simultaneously before L3 (L1/L2→L3), and iv) the learner is in simultaneous contact with the three languages L1/L2/L3).The present paper aims how the four orders affect the Algerian students’learning process of English as an L3. Contrastive analysis

In the 1950s, American linguist Robert Lado began to study errors systematically and developed theories about errors via contrastive analysis. Contrastive analysis hypothesis stated that the principal barrier to second language acquisition is the interference of the first language system with the second language system and that a scientific, structural comparison of the two languages in question would enable people to predict and describe both of the problems and the supporting aspects of the second language learning. Such theories were deeply rooted in behaviourism and structuralism and, thus; they held that human language learning was to change old habits and to build new habits. Moreover, errors occur when

L1 L2

L3


32

learners could not respond correctly to a particular stimulus in the second language. Since an error may serve as a negative stimulus which reinforces “bad habits”, it should not be allowed to occur. So, in the classroom teaching, they placed more emphasis on mechanical pattern drills and attempted to correct any errors or mistakes wherever they occur.

Interlanguage and its features

Although it proved some efficiency in detecting the second language learners’ errors, the contrastive analysis had some weaknesses in that it emphasises the interference of the outer environment of language study, but the language learners themselves are totally neglected. While interlanguage intended to explore learning strategies based on the learners’ errors, and it has become the basis of error analysis.

What is interlanguage? The term was firstly adopted by Selinker( 1972) from “interlingual”. It refers to the separateness of a second language learners’ system that has a structurally intermediate status between the native and target language learners. A number of terms have been coined to describe the perspective which stressed the legitimacy of learners’ second language system. Corder (1971) used the term “idiosyncratic dialect” or “language learners’ language”. Nemser(1971) called it “approximate system”. Despite labelled differently, each of these designation share the concept that second language learners are forming their own self-contained independent linguistic systems. This is neither the system of the native language nor the system of the target language, but falls between the two. In the interlanguage legitimate system the learners are no longer looked on as producers of malformed, imperfect language replete with mistakes, but as intelligent and creative beings proceeding through logical, systematic stages of acquisition creatively acting upon their linguistic environment. Another important feature is that this system is dynamic and it is based on the best attempt of learners to produce order and structure to the linguistic stimuli surrounding them. Finally, it is a linguistic system which reflects the psychological process of learning and the psychological process of foreign language learning in particular. Error analysis and treatment:

In order to analyze learners’ errors from a proper scope, it is crucial to make a distinction between “mistake” and “error”. Errors are made when learners of L2 produce incorrect language because they do not know the correct form, while mistakes are made when learners produce incorrect language although they know the correct form. Learners can correct their own mistakes, but by definition, they cannot correct errors. According to Brown (2000), a “mistake” refers to a performance error in that it is a failure to utilize a known system correctly. While an “error” is a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker and that reflects the interlanguage competence of the learner. This recognition process is followed by the error description process. We compare learners’ sentences with the correct sentences in target language, and find the errors. Then we come to the next step which is the stage of finding the sources of errors. Categorization of learners’ errors The following perspective is an overall presentation of the main types of errors that may occur in learners’ language transfer. The learners’ errors can be categorized in terms of various criteria. One type of that categorization is what Corder refers to as expressive and receptive errors which are manifestations of expressive and receptive behaviour and depend upon knowledge of the “formation rules” of a language. “Inadequate knowledge of these rules will therefore show itself in both sorts of behaviour. But it is much easier to detect imperfect knowledge in the case of expressive behaviour. Expression leaves traces transient, but recordable, in the case of speech, permanent in the case of writing.” (Corder, 1973: 261).


33

Generally speaking, language errors can be classified according to: a. linguistic levels (i.e., pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and style), b. form (e.g., omission, insertion, and substitution), c. type (systematic errors/errors in competence vs. occasional errors/errors in performance), d. cause (e.g., interference, interlanguage), e. norm vs. system and f. modality (i.e., level of proficiency in speaking, writing, listening speaking). To delve into deeper issues,three main processes interfere in the errors that EFL learners make: a. transfer of rules from the mother-tongue, b. redundancy reduction by omitting elements and c. overgeneralization of foreign language rules. Transfer of rules

Language transfer (also known as L1 interference, linguistic interference, and cross meaning) refers to speakers or writers applying knowledge from their native language to a second language. It is most commonly discussed in the context of English language learning and teaching, but it can occur in any situation when someone does not have a native-level command of a language, as when translating into a second language. In transfer rules errors the EFL learners tend to use their previous mother tongue experience as a means of organising the foreign language data .Such rules deriving from existing habits prevent correct speech from being established. Transfer errors are “interlingual” since they come from the interaction between the first and second or foreign language. Redundancy reduction

This is a tendency by EFL learners to eliminate many items or add unnecessary items, either by ignorance or intensively, which are redundant to conveying the intended message. For instance, in the case of a learner of English language as a foreign language we may meet utterances, such as: “No understand”, “return back” etc. It is rather a simplified code of communication or reduced language systems used by foreign language learners especially in earlier stages of the learning process. Overgeneralization

In the foreign language rules (and where belongs the majority of ‘intralingual’ errors) the learner while trying constructing rules which predict how the different items will behave, sometimes, his/her predictions are wrong, probably for one of two main reasons: a- an exception to the general rule or because b- a new category and rule must be constructed. In either case, the learner’s initial error is due to overgeneralization of the rule which causes the wrong prediction. In the case of overgeneralization, it is his/her previous knowledge of the foreign language that the learner uses. Lee (1990) elaborates on the following classification of learner errors: Grammatical (morphosyntactic) errors where the stress is on the need for grammatical accuracy in both speech and writing. This may hinder communication but errors at the sentence level often reflect performance “mistakes” for which immediate teacher correction is not necessarily appropriate. Discourse errors are dependable upon the observance of the rules of speaking and writing and reflect learners’ cultural and pragmatic knowledge of language use. Phonologically-induced errors are manifested in wrong pronunciation and/or intonation; in the case of English studied as a foreign language such errors necessitate timely correction on the part of the teacher because vowel length, voiced and voiceless last consonants, word stress, etc. may have a meaning-differentiating function, as in live/leave, leave/leaf, import(n) and import(v), and so on. Lexical errors are linked with errors belonging to the other linguistic levels which may also hamper communication and intelligibility.


34

As the focus of the present paper will only tackle the linguistic issue of the language transfer, the plain task is to categorize learner errors on the basis of the linguistic levels testifying their manifestation in the different aspects of the language learning interference. Phonological interference

Pyun (in Mehlhorn, 2007) claims that language learners’ interlanguage owes phonological knowledge to L1 rules, L2 (first foreign language) rules, L3 (foreign language being studied) rules, and “interrules”, the latter described as “bridges” between the already acquired languages and L3.This is manifested in speaking and reading and is usually indicated by recourse to word stress, intonation and speech sounds typical of French which influence the acquisition of English. This can clearly illustrated in the following examples :

1. The initial “h” is not pronounced, e.g.: hemisphere [`emisfiə] instead of [`hemisfiə], hotel [o`tel] instead of [həu`tel], etc. Occasionally, the non-initial [h] sound is also omitted, as in alcohol [`alkool]. In French, the letter “h” is always silent.

2. The “-ure” ending in polysyllabic words is pronounced as [juə], e.g.: literature [literə`tjuə] instead of [`litrit∫ə], again with a change of word stress. Compare, for example, with the pronunciation of the French voiture (“automobile, car”). Because the actual contrastive analysis of the present study will be on a written corpus we shall not depict all possible errors that are rooted to the phonological interference since such kinds of errors cannot be depicted in the learners’ target written corpus after all. Orthographic interference

This occurs at the level of writing where words’ spelling are altered under the influence of French. The following examples can illustrate such alteration: 1-The addition of an extra “-e” at the end of words, e.g.: closenesse instead of closeness, groupe instead of group, seniore instead of senior, Greeke instead of Greek, etc. 2-The adoption of a French suffix such as –ique, -eur, and –oire, e.g.: electrique instead of electric . Lexical interference

It is manifested in speaking and writing and is represented by the borrowing of French words which may or may not be converted to sound more natural in English. Francophone learners of English tend to use French words in order to fill in the existing gaps in their knowledge of English vocabulary, e.g.:langues instead of languages,fautes instead of mistakes ,tache instead of task ect ... Grammatical interference

L2 influences L3 in terms of word order, use of pronouns and determiners, tense and mood: There are modifications to word order due to the influence of French. , most often illustrated in the placement of adjectives after nouns in noun phrases. In French, most adjectives go after the word they modify.e.g:factor important instead of big factor, image clear instead of clear image ect….The use of definite articles with proper nouns is a French language feature which is sometimes transferred by the francophone learners when uttering English words .e.g: The professor Brackert teaches in Frankfurt. Among the other kinds of grammatical interference from French to English is also the use of a different tense .e.g: I study here for a year or he has left yesterday and the wrong use of the relative pronoun .e.g: Here is the student which you met her last week or the people which arrived. Method of data collection and analysis

Our study specifically is based on a survey of university students having French as their second language and studying English as a foreign language in ELT department at Chlef


35

University preparing their first year of Master Degree. The method was simple in that we gave a short passage of about 100 words to 25 students to translate first from French into English; we called that version(A) ,then we asked them to translate the same passage from Arabic to French and we referred to it as version (B).the target students were chosen at random as that we aimed to test their abilities in translation for a short text that dealt mainly with the concept of “bilingualism”; a linguistic issue that would both raise their interest and match appropriately the scope of the study . As we have focused on the written form of the language, we have not dealt with the spoken language e.g. pronunciation, intonation word stress, sentence stress ect... and we wish to target this case in other studies. After that the handouts were collected, we started sorting out errors committed by the students in both versions as it is clarified in the two tables below: Language Features

Sample transfer error in English Frequency of errors

ARTICLES • Definite article used for

generalization.

• …that rely on the representations of

the individuals…

( 2 times)

NOUNS, PRONOUNS, ADJECTIVES, ADVERBS

• The wrong noun

• Wrong affixation

• Wrong adjective

• Wrong adverb • Redundancy

• …built on representations of the

persons… Billinguality additive • ...in order to develope axtra

knowledgement.......in Educational powerful programmation.....

• ....Studies that shows that is necessare to impose.... Billinguality additive

• even the conditions does not encourage,the progress of ...

• ...the representations of individuals....

( 2times)

( 3 times)

( 1 time)

( 4 times)

( 1time) SENTENCE FORM , WORD

ORDER • Wrong placement of

adjectives

• …Studies that seem necessary to

make available to the education… ...so-called competence additive

bilingualism.... ...in Educational powerful programmation....

( 3 times)

VERBS , TENSES • Wrong verb agreement • No-ing ( gerund)

• …can pave the path to the success of

all tasks which has.. • …who are capable to use two

languages…. .

( 4 times)

( 2 times)

Language Transfer Errors from French into English (version A) Table 1:


36

Table 2: Language Transfer Errors from Arabic into English (version B)

It is worth mentioning that we relied on the Language Guide to Transfer Errors (Wigan Council) that covers more than twenty languages, including Arabic and French common errors depicted in EFL learners, in sorting out the different students’ errors.

The error analysis in both language transfers shows that the students made more errors in the second version of translation (from Arabic into English) than the first one (from French into English).This could be attributed to the similarity of the morpho-syntactic features that both of the French and English language share. Historically speaking, French and English do not belong to the same origin. The former is part of the Romance subgroup of Indo-European languages, whereas the latter belongs to the Germanic branch. Since the two languages have been in contact at different stages of their development and for quite long periods of time, the

Language Features Sample transfer error in English The frequency of errors

ARTICLES • No definite article with

definite items. • Definite article with words

that carry general meanings

• … Arabic/French bilinguism is not … • …Which aims to form the bilingual

people who…

( 6 times) ( 4 times)

VERBS AND AUXILIARIES

• is omitted. e B

• Wrong verb endings/subject-verb agreement

• Placing the verb at the end of the sentence

• ...but also a case study that necessary...

• …large investigation that go

beyond this competence….. …. The progress of bilingual individuals allow individuals...... ....the conditions does not...... .....Studies that shows......

• ....that can make any make any task for language learning succeed…..


( 4 times) WORD ORDER AND SENTENCE STRUCTURE

• Adjective placement

• Redundancy

• ... to impose this in Educational powerful programmation.... ....develope

competence called Billinguality additive....... Studies that seem necessary to make available to the education sector…..

• ....develop the efficiency of the language known as double or Bilingual .

( 4 times)

( 3 times)

NOUNS, PRONOUNS, ADJECTIVES, ADVERBS.

• Adjective restatement • Mis-use of the possessive

case Using an adjective instead of an adverb

• Wrong placement of adverbs

• Wrong word • Wrong noun

• …Even if all the conditions needed are not all there….

• …its impact on Algerian’s personality… from the simple notion to her

effectness on the Algerians personalities ….. • ...,but also a case study that

necessary requires.... • …the current trend aims to…,also

it aims to develop….. • ...The existing tend in Algeria

aiming…. • The programmation......


( 1 time)

(3 times)

( 1 time)

( 1 time)


37

origin of over 70% of the English vocabulary can be traced back to French and Latin, the ancestor of all Italic languages. . At first glance, this simple historical fact suggests that the students are not likely to encounter such difficulties in studying English as a foreign language. This is, however, a superficial idea because it turns out that similarities between languages may actually constitute differences in disguise. . In other words, similarity of form does not always presuppose similarity of function. In fact, students still face some difficulties in being more accurate in their English language usage. For instance, lexically speaking, they tend to use French words in order to fill in the existing gaps in their knowledge of English vocabulary (lexical interference)e.g:necessaire instead of necessary.Furherrmore,an error like programmation is due a language interference which has a direct relation with one of the French language own way of forming noun by adding the ation/tion suffix to the end of some word roots.Concerning grammatical interference, There are modifications to word order attributable to the influence of French, most often illustrated in the placement of adjectives after nouns in noun phrases.e.g: competence additive .In French, most adjectives go after the word they modify. Such word order is not typical of English where the adjective often precedes the noun. Concerning word order at the sentence level, the students tend to place the verb before the subject English where the word order is fixed and follows the subject/verb/object pattern. With regard to the second version of translation ( from Arabic into English), there has been depicted also some features of language interference errors such as using the wrong possessive case in expressions like its impact on Algerian’s personality… from the simple notion to her effectness.... . The use of the pronoun “her” in such a statement is attributed to a sort of Arabic language interference where such pronoun can refer both to the feminine and the neuter gender. Starting the sentence clause with the adverb even instead of the conjunction eventhough to start a concession or contrast sentence is much attributable to the Arabic language interference.

As part of the teaching role, it is fundamental for the EFL teacher to look for the most efficient ways to bring feedback and correction the students’ mistakes and errors. However, the teacher should know when to interfere for such correction. First, we are confronted with a dilemma—fluency versus accuracy. If the purpose is mainly communicative, it is advisable to delay correction. Some teachers believe that the correction is determined by the type of errors committed. For instance, if they are pronunciation or grammatical errors, immediate correction is preferable, for post-correction cannot make learners remember anything. When the whole class is familiar with a word, but only one of them is singled out for being corrected, he or she would feel awkward. So, we can see that when to correct is very complicated. Both of the teachers’ intuition and the feedback from the students are equally important. Furthermore, the EFL teacher should know how to correct the students’ committed mistakes in a tactful way. According to James (1998), it is sensible to follow the three principles in error correction. Firstly, the techniques involved in error correction would be able to enhance the students’ accuracy in expression. Secondly, the students’ affective factors should be taken into consideration and the correction should not be face-threatening to the students. Lastly, the class manager should be aware of the type of errors that need urgent and immediate correction. Burt (1975) made a distinction between “global” and “local” errors. Global errors hinder communication and they prevent the learner from comprehending some aspects of the message. Local errors only affect a single element of a sentence, but do not prevent a message from being heard. Thus, the teacher’s focus should be much on the correction of global errors. Conclusion

Despite the limitations of the of the study namely the contrastive analysis in depicting all L2 and EFL learners errors since it focuses only on the outside environment of the learners and neglects the language learners themselves ,the focus on learner errors is nevertheless


38

useful to language teachers as a means of enhancing teaching methodology. An awareness of the types of errors learners tend to commit is necessary for language teachers so that they are able to properly and timely correct inappropriate and unacceptable utterances. Concerning Algerian learners of English as a second foreign language, it must be noted that even if orthographic interference is successfully dealt with, by means of dictations or plenty of written assignments, phonologically-induced interference and lexical interference postulate graver problems to the teacher compared with that of the French language. Thus, the teacher should be skillful in managing the correction of the learners’ errors. In other words, he or she should know exactly what errors should be corrected, when to correct errors and how to correct them. References: Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching. Longman, Inc. Burt, M. K. (1975). Error analysis in the adult EFL classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 9: 53-63. Cenoz, J., (1997) The Influence of Bilingualism on Multilingual Acquisition: Some Data from the Basque Country, I Simposio Internacional sobre o Bilingüismo: Comunidades e individuos bilingües, UniversidadedeVigo,pp.278-287,athttp://webs.uvigo.es/ssl/actas1997/03/Cenoz.pdf> Cenoz, J., U. Jessner (eds.), (2000) English in Europe: The Acquisition of a Third Language, Multilingual Matters. Corder, S.P. (1971). Idiosyncratic dialects and error analysis. International Review of Applied Linguistics, (9): 147-159. Corder, S. P., (1973) Introducing Applied Linguistics, Pelican Books. James, C. (1998). Errors in language learning and use. Addison Wesley Longman Limited. Selinker, L. (1972). Interlanguage. International Review of Applied Linguistics, (10): 201-231. Lee, N., (1990) Notions of “Error” and Appropriate Corrective Treatment, Hong Kong Papers in Linguistics and Language Teaching 13 Mehlhorn, G., (2007) From Russian to Polish: Positive Transfer in Third Language Acquisition, 16th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Saarbrucken, pp. 1745-1748, at <http://www.icphs2007.de/conference/Papers/1709/1709.pdf> Nemser, W. (1971). Approximative systems of foreign language learners. International Review of Applied Linguistics, (9): 115-123.


39

EDWARD SAID: THE POSTCOLONIAL THEORY AND THE LITERATURE OF DECOLONIZATION

Lutfi Hamadi, PhD Lebanese International University, Lebanon

Abstract This paper attempts an exploration of the literary theory of postcolonialism, which

traces European colonialism of many regions all over the world, its effects on various aspects of the lives of the colonized people and its manifestations in the Western literary and philosophical heritage. Shedding light on the impact of this theory in the field of literary criticism, the paper focuses on Edward Said's views for the simple reason that he is considered the one who laid the cornerstone of this theory, despite the undeniable role of other leading figures. This theory is mainly based on what Said considers the false image of the Orient fabricated by Western thinkers as the primitive "other" in contrast with the civilized West. He believes that the consequences of colonialism are still persisting in the form of chaos, coups, corruption, civil wars, and bloodshed, which permeates many ex-colonies. The powerful colonizer has imposed a language and a culture, whereas those of the Oriental peoples have been ignored or distorted. Referring to some works of colonial and postcolonial novelists, the paper shows how being free from the repression of imperialism, the natives could, eventually, produce their own culture of opposition, build their own image, and write their history outside the frame they have for long been put into. With such writers, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness can never be read the same after Achebe’s criticism, nor can Bronte’s Jane Eyre after Jean Rhys’s postcolonial parallel novel Wide Sargasso Sea.

Keywords: Postcolonialism, literary theory, colonial discourse, decolonization literature Introduction

This paper attempts an exploration of postcolonialism, a literary theory, which traces European colonialism of many regions all over the world, its effects on various aspects of the lives of the colonized people in general, and its manifestations in Western literary and philosophical heritage in particular throughout the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, in addition to the emergence of the literature of opposition and resistance in the ex-colonies. The purpose of this study is to shed light on this theory and the remarkable impact it has left in the field of literary criticism. The paper will focus on Edward Said's views and ideas by exploring his most important books and articles, for the simple reason that Said is considered the one who laid the cornerstone of this theory, despite the importance of other leading figures such as Gayatri Spivak and Homi Bhabha in this respect. Edward Said, the Palestinian American, and the notable academic and lecturer, had been the professor of comparative literature at Colombia University for a long time until his death of leukemia in 2003. Said's name came to light when his book Orientalism was published in 1978 and laid the ground for the theory of postcolonialism, sparking a storm of controversy, which didn't die with Said's decease. I

Said's theory of postcolonialism is mainly based on what he considers the false image of the Orient or the East that has been fabricated by western explorers, poets, novelists,


40

philosophers, political theorists, economists, and imperial administrators since Napoleon's occupation of Egypt in 1798. According to Said, these have always shown the Orient as the primitive, uncivilized "other", in an attempt to create it as the contrast to the advanced and civilized West. In his highly influential work, Orientalism, Said considers that "Orientalism is a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between "the Orient" and (most of the time) "the Occident". Said believes that such discourse has been used either in preparation to military campaigns and colonialism against the Orient, or as a justification for the occupations and horrors that accompany them. He goes further, contending that it is quite misleading to consider that such horrors came to an end with the end of direct colonialism. On the contrary, he believes that the consequences of colonialism are still persisting in the form of chaos, coups, corruption, civil wars, and bloodshed, which pervade many of these countries, mainly because of the residues of colonization. In this respect, Said believes that a powerful colonizer has imposed a language and a culture, whereas cultures, histories, values, and languages of the Oriental peoples have been ignored and even distorted by the colonialists in their pursuit to dominate these peoples and exploit their wealth in the name of enlightening, civilizing, and even humanizing them. What seems to be so infuriating to Said is that such peoples, who, in most cases have completely different cultures, have always been stereotyped by the so-called Orientalists, who so simply cross out all the distinctions and national characteristics of these diverse cultures. Consequently, the colonial texts have depicted the Indians, the Egyptians, the Palestinians, the Latin Americans, and many others as almost the same, the Orient, the "Other", in juxtaposition with "Us", the Occidental. It is true that Edward Said was not the first to write on and criticize Western Orientalilsm, as he himself admits in his article "Orientalism Reconsidered", published in Diana Bryden's Postcolonialism (846). However, in Orientalism, Said, by most accounts, revolutionized the literary field and laid the ground for postcolonial theory, creating an unprecedented dispute in the Academic circles in the West and East alike. According to The Economist, "Orientalism, translated into dozens of languages, became a foundation text for a great boom in post-colonial studies." Orientalism, together with his later works, represents Said's vehement commitment to speaking truth to power, to uncovering the grave oppression and persecution practiced against the colonized peoples by imperialism and colonial discourse. He describes the way the imperial West has always seen the Orient and how this view is obvious not only in many texts written by early travelers and explorers, but also in important literary works of prominent writers. Because there would be no limit to the narrative history of Orientalism, Said emphasizes in his study on "the Anglo-French-American experience of the Arabs and Islam, which for almost a thousand years together stood for the Orient" (17). In this sense, Said defines Orientalism as "a distribution of geopolitical awareness into aesthetic, scholarly discovery, philological reconstruction, psychological analysis, landscape and sociological description, … about what 'we' do and what 'they' cannot do" (12) Said argues that what has been written about the East is no more than false assumptions upon which the Western attitudes toward the East were built, justifying and encouraging the European and American colonial and imperial behavior towards the Arab-Islamic peoples and their cultures. Said sees that the long European colonial rule of the East has negatively influenced the most seemingly objective texts on the East even those written by the most knowledgeable and well-meaning Western Orientalists. These texts, according to Said, are highly biased, depicting the Orient as irrational, strange, weak, feminized "Other", contrasted with the rational, familiar, strong, masculine West. He affirms that the West needs to show this difference so that it would legalize the domination of the superior "civilized" West over the inferior "primitive" East. He concludes that "The relationship between Occident and Orient is a relationship of power, of domination, of varying degrees of a complex hegemony" (5). In The Empire Writes Back


41

Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin support Said's idea of the condescending view the West has always seen the Orient through, by showing how Africa and Africans, for example, appear in the eyes of Western writers and thinkers as not only the primitive and demonic "opposite to the angels of reason and culture" but even to the extent that "Hegel could define the continent as being " 'outside history' " (159). Said goes further to emphasize that, unfortunately, the standardized molds and culturally stereotyped images of the Orient still permeate the Western media, academia, and political circles, thus intensifying "the hold of the nineteenth-century academic and imaginative demonology of 'the mysterious Orient' " (Orientalism 26). In short, the Orientalists’ effort to obliterate the Oriental as a human being is, for Said, important both academically and intellectually, and it is totally wrong to separate literature and culture from politics and history, thus the necessity to study and understand society and literary culture together. That is why Said refers to specific examples of books written by Orientalists and analyzes them in a detailed study, showing how these supposedly subtle works of art have not only distorted the East with its values, cultures, traditions and languages, but also encouraged, overtly or covertly, the dispossession process the imperial West has practiced against the East. In other words, the Western fabricated image of the Orient was a preface and a reinforcement of the Western imperial rule over the Orient. It is worth mentioning that Said's criticism in Orientalism is not restricted to Western colonialism and Orientalism, but he equally and harshly attacks the practices of Arab elites who internalized the American and British orientalists' ideas of Arabic culture. This definitely was the case of the literary elite in other ex-colonies. In her landmark essay "Can the Subaltern Speak?", Gayatri Spivak deals with the problem of "how the third world subject is represented within Western discourse" (Brydon 1427). She shows that even now the powerless are unable to express themselves, and that the experiences of such groups are inevitably distorted by the perspectives of the elite, such as academics, who are describing them. According to her "Certain varieties of the Indian elite are at best native informants for first world intellectuals interested in the voice of the Other. But one must nevertheless insist that the colonized subaltern subject is irretrievably heterogenous" (1442). According to Said, the present is a mirror to the past, and it would be absolutely gullible to study it ignoring the role played by the colonialists in forming this present. Consequently, Said contends, both histories of the colonizer and the colonized are inextricably interrelated and cannot be studied from a unilateral point of view. To justify his claims that literary texts are tools used by colonialism, and that these misleading texts have always distorted the image of the Orient, Said goes back in Orientalism to Aeschylus's The Persians and Euripides's The Bacchae, picking evidence to show how both works depict Asia as the hostile destructive “‘other’ world beyond the seas" (Orientalism 56). Other writers Said studies in details are Silvestre de Sacy, whose works have been used later as references in studies of the Orient, and Ernest Renan, whose study of philology in general and Semitic languages in particular leads him to the conclusion that the European prose "points out defects, virtues, barbarisms, and shortcomings in the language, the people, and the civilization"(142) of the Orient, and that "Semitic is not a live language, and … neither are Semites live creatures" (145). In the last chapter entitled "Orientalism Now", Said draws a comparison between Conrad's Marlow and Lamartine, pointing to the fact that both talk about "blank spaces on the earth" (216), while these blank spaces were inhabited by natives." Such writings continued in the twentieth century by T.E. Lawrence and Gertrude Bell, whose image of the Arabs is that of primitiveness and lack of wisdom. Said shows how such writers' Eurocentrism and ethnocentrism were, ironically enough, directed against both the Muslims and the Jews. (241)


42

In an article entitled "Islam through Western Eyes" published in The Nation two years after Orientalism, Said emphasizes his ideas of the distorted image of Islam in the West's texts and media, shedding more light on how Islam is seen as a threat of a return to the Middle Ages and a danger to the democratic order in the West. In this article, Said reasserts his point in Orientalism that the same mistake made by the past Orientalists is repeated now by blindly generalizing all the Muslims and by simply classifying them into good or bad Muslims. He wonders how the scientific progress and objective research in the West, mainly in the States, hasn't included Orientalism, where Orientalists are still biased, but the reason, to him, is, after all, a political one. In Culture and Imperialism, a sequel to Orientalism, Said projects a new light on the interwoven connections between the imperial enterprise and the culture that reflects and strengthens it. He extends his study to colonization in parts of the world other than the Middle East, namely India, African countries, Caribbean Islands and Australia. Analyzing more works of literature such as Kipling's Kim, Austen's Mansfield Park, Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and Verdi's Aida, Said emphasizes the inseparability between the history of the empire and the great works of literature written in that era. That is to say, Said illustrates the intertwined relationship between literature and the life of its time. In fact, this relationship between literature and the Imperial endeavor has been emphasized by many other writers. In "Can the Subaltern Speak", Spivak assures that "Western intellectual production is, in many ways, complicit with Western international economic interests" (Bryden 1427). Not unlike Said or Spivak, Elleke Boehmer, in In Colonial and Postcolonial Literature, argues that, among other functions, literature in a way reflects the social and historical moment. Boehmer defines the colonial literature as that which was "written by and for colonizing Europeans about non-European lands dominated by them…Colonialist literature was informed by theories concerning the superiority of European culture and the rightness of empire" (3). To achieve his study of the modern Western Empires of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and to shed more light on the relationship between culture and imperialism, Said has chosen the novel because it plays an important role in "the formation of imperial attitudes, references, and experiences," and it has "also become the method colonized people use to assert their own identity and the existence of their own history" (xii). To clarify his point, Said studies both, colonialist's literature and what he calls literature of opposition and resistance. Concerning the former, Said refers to Conrad's Nostromo, quoting Holroyd, an American financier who supports Charles Gould, the British owner of a mine in a Central American republic, saying what resonates with the discourse of the New World Order, "We shall run the world's business whether the world likes it or not." (xvii). Said notices that in Nostromo as well as in Heart of Darkness, Conrad is anti-imperialist when he uncovers and criticizes “the corruption of overseas domination, [but] "deeply reactionary when it came to conceding that Africa or South America could ever have had an independent history or culture" (xviii). After a thorough study of Austen's Mansfield Park, Said insists that Austen's works, as well as other great writers', should be read not only as creative works of artistic talents, but because they are so, they require "that longer and slower analysis" (96) so that we can see beyond the "dead silence" that the slave trade is met with in Mansfield Park. He concludes that by "reading it carefully, we can sense how ideas about dependent races and territories were held both by foreign-office executives, colonial bureaucrats, and military strategists and by intelligent novel-readers educating themselves in the fine points of moral evaluation, literary balance, and stylistic finish" (95). Among the seemingly endless examples Said mentions to illustrate his point is Andre Gide's novel L'Immoraliste in which Michel, the narrator, degrades the Arabs by choosing French Algeria to satisfy his suppressed instincts, seeing it, "a place of deserts, languorous oases, amoral native boys and girls" (192).


43

Similarly, Boehmer analyzes Conrad's Lord Jim to reach almost Said's conclusions. Although Jim was a flawed protagonist, he was given another chance to prove his manhood and heroism on a lesser type of human beings, the natives in the Malayan archipelago. Showing colonialism as problematic as it is in Heart of Darkness _ a failing project _ doesn't prevent the novel from showing the real image the colonialists have of the colonized. Boehmer asserts that the novel is in fact about the Europeans, where "the non-European environment plays a part in the narrative only in so far as it corrupts” (66). Boehmer adds that "Always with reference to the superiority of an expanding Europe, colonized peoples were represented as lesser, less human, less civilized, as child or savage, wild man, animal, or headless mass" (79). According to Boehmer, both Conrad and Kipling "subscribed to theories of racial difference and supremacy, manifested in the main as the hierarchies of command which dominate their narratives. Despite his failings, Marlow sees Lord Jim as possessing an internal nobility and quality of leadership that distinguishes him from the people of Patusan" (86). Like Said, Boehmer even believes that such literary works took Western values for their standards of success, where the colonialists define themselves not only as superior but also as masculine keeping in mind that " masculinity characterized colonialist action" (63). Similar to Said and Boehmer, Gayatri Spivak agrees that there is a severe need to reread European literature, having in mind that this literature, mainly that of the 19th century, reflects imperialism, which was part of the cultural representation of the empire. In her notable essay "Three Women's Texts and a Critique of Imperialism", she argues that "The role of literature in the production of cultural representation should not be ignored" (694). Examining Charlotte Bronte's famous novel Jane Eyre, Spivak believes that although this novel portrays Jane as a new feminist ideal, the study of the novel in this process disguises the attempt of the novel to naturalize Western dominance, thus Spivak's belief that Bertha, the Jamaican, functions as the "other" juxtaposed with the novel’s protagonist with whom the reader sympathizes and limitlessly supports. In fact, Spivak's analysis of Jane Eyre, very much like Said's of Kim, and Boehmer's of Lord Jim, reaches a conclusion that Bertha Mason is "a figure produced by the axiomatics of imperialism" (698). On the other hand, Said admits in Culture and Imperialism that as there has always been colonial literature, a literature of opposition and decolonization started to appear reflecting opposition to the empire in the center as well as nationalist resistance in the peripheral. He believes that "Here, too, culture is in advance of politics, military history, or economic process…Just as culture may predispose and actively prepare one society for the overseas domination of another, it may also prepare that society to relinquish or modify the idea of overseas domination" (200). One example Said cites here is Forster's A Passage to India, in which, though modest, opposition to the empire is represented in both Aziz, the Muslim nationalist, and Godbole, the surrealistic Hindu, and to some extent, in Fielding, the British. Said finds that "At least Fielding can connect with a character like Aziz," and concludes that despite seeing India "unapprehendable," he still could make the reader "feel affection for and even intimacy with some Indians and India generally" (205). Said shows that sympathizing with a resisting nationalism appeared more explicitly in types of writing other than the novel. To prove that, Said refers to Edward Thompson, whose subject is misrepresentation, saying that Indians "see the English entirely through the experience of British brutality during the 1857 'mutiny'. The English, with the pompous, cold-blooded religiosity of the Raj at its worst, see Indians and their history as barbaric, uncivilized, inhuman" (206). This leads Said to study the themes of resistance culture, showing how the natives could, eventually, produce their own vigorous culture of opposition. In this respect, in an article on Edward Said published in Prospect magazine, David Herman believes that "long before most other critics in America, [Said] had discovered a new set of thinkers who had written about colonialism, race and identity [among whom] are CLR James, Tagore, and


44

Fanon and he put their insights together with the work of a later generation of postcolonial writers and theorists, including Henry Louis Gates, the Subaltern studies group, Rushdie and Marquez, Achebe and Mahfouz (2). Writers of the "margin" could speak free from the suppression and repression of imperialism, so Conrad's snake-like river that leads to nowhere but to primitiveness, corruption, and annihilation in Heart of Darkness is Honia in Ngugi Wa Thiongo's The River Between, a river of cure, which "seemed to possess a strong will to live, scorning droughts and weather changes" (Culture & Imperialism 211). Again Conrad's river becomes the Nile in Tayeb Salih's Season of Migration to the North, where Kurtz's voyage is reversed and Mostapha Said, metaphorically speaking, conquers the West, coming from the Sudanese countryside. Said makes it clear that "The post-imperial writers of the Third World therefore bear their past within them __ as scars of humiliating wounds ….as urgently reinterpretable and redeployable experiences in which the formerly silent native speaks"(212). In this respect, in his article "Postcolonial Criticism", Homi Bhabha, assures that despite all attempts of repression, "it is from those who have suffered the sentence of history – subjugation, domination, diaspora, displacement _ that we learn our most enduring lessons for living and thinking"(106). Said’s emphasis is on how more importance should be given to the references to the colonial world made in this great literature. According to Ashcroft in The Empire Writes Back, this postcolonial literature gains its significance from the fact that it reflects the influence of colonialism on "more than three-quarters of the people of the world today", as these people "have had their lives shaped by the experience of colonialism" (1) in a way or another. These peoples have had the chance for the first time to write about themselves, to speak of themselves outside the frame they have for long been put into and given an image which is no more than a fabrication imposed on the them by the powerful empire. In response to the colonial discourse, these writers show that the natives did have a culture and a language before colonization, and, like all human beings, they had their strengths and flaws. Unlike the colonial texts, these writers do not stereotype even the Western characters in their works. In Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, for example, we see two completely different missionaries, the understanding, non-violent Mr. Brown versus the strict, intolerant Mr. Smith. Similarly, Kamala Markandaya introduces Dr. Kenny in her Nectar in a Sieve, who dedicates his life to help the impoverished Indians juxtaposed with the merciless white owners of the tannery. Analyzing several other writers from different regions of the Third World including Tagore, Achebe and even Yeats, Said concludes that "no one today is purely one thing" and that ethnicity, gender, religion or nationality is just a starting point, thus his call to stop ruling, classifying, or putting people into hierarchies and "For the intellectual there is quite enough of value to do without that" (Culture & Imperialism 336). What Said emphasizes in Culture and Imperialism, as well as in other books and articles, is not accusing such talented writers like Conrad or Austen, because after all, he believes, they are creatures of their time. Nor does he write to blame those who were once responsible for the bloodshed and horrors caused by the empire and colonization. In fact, what he calls for is a different reading of those literary works as great products of imagination and as a part of relationship between culture and empire, more realistic understanding of the relation between the colonizer and the colonized, and an objective look at the historical experience of empire as common to both," Indians and Britishers, Algerians and French, Westerners and Africans Asians, Latin Americans, and Australians despite the horrors, the bloodshed, and the vengeful bitterness" (xxii). In summary, being highly controversial, as mentioned above, Said's ideas have gained countless adherents and even followers to the extent that Paul Bove'

, in his Intellectuals in Power, places Said at the level of thinkers like Nietzsche, Foucault, Auerbach and others. But, on the other hand, Said's views have aroused the rage of many opponents, who spare no effort to raise suspicions around him and attack his views.


45

As a matter of fact, Said's works, mainly Orientalism, have been harshly criticized on different grounds. Paradoxically, Said and his colleagues of postcolonialism have been attacked by critics of the left as well as those of the right. Marxist writers such as Aijaz Ahmad, Terry Eagleton, and Sana Haque sometimes go to the extent of accusing them of complicity with the American cultural Imperialism. On the other hand, academic Orientalists, whom Said has seen as spokespeople of the empire, consider that it is unreasonable that Said attacks the West while he enjoys the privileges of this West, and accuse him of taking the Palestinian cause as a cover to introduce himself the victim he has never been. Among these are Bernard Lewis, Albert Hourani, and Nikki Kiddie. Some other opponents have gone too far to accuse him of encouraging terror, ignoring all his secular discourse and call for a humanistic approach and a constructive mutual understanding, not conflict, between different cultures. In his attack on Said in his article “Enough Said”, David Pryce-Jones, ironically enough, agrees on what clearly supports Said’s assertion of the inferiority the East has always been looked upon in the West. He quotes what he calls Ibn Warraq’s “lapidary judgements” that “Only the West seems to have developed the notion that the natural world is a rational and ordered universe, that man is a rational creature who is able to understand, without the aid of revelation, or spiritual agencies, and able to describe that universe and grasp the laws that govern it.” Price-Jones comments that “Rationalism, universalism, and self-inspection are Western traits which expand civilization.” Trying to cast doubts on what he calls “Said’s claims to be a Palestinian, dispossessed by Zionist Jews, therefore an archetypal Third World victim,” he, finally, reaches the conclusion that “On the pretext of victimhood, but from the safety of New York, [Said] urged others to kill and be killed” (3). Stanley Kurtz, in his turn, remarks after a prolonged attack on Edward Said in “The Hegemonic Impulse of Post-colonialism” in The Weekly Standard that “Like the terrorists themselves, the post-colonial theorists have long found comfort and solidarity in blaming both American power and a fast-fading band of traditionalist scholars for the complex ills of the Muslim world” (1) However, according to his countless supporters, among whom are Nicholas Dirks, Gyan Prakash, and Ronald Inden, it seems that the West has not been ready enough to accept his revolutionary theory, which projects a new light on the West's discourse and requires a radical reconsideration of the way many of the classics of the empire have been read. It is important to mention here Said's view in lecture one of Representations of an Intellectual that an intellectual’s mission is to speak truth to power, “to confront orthodoxy and dogma (rather than to produce them), to be someone who cannot easily be co-opted by governments or corporations, and whose raison d’etre is to represent all those people and issues who are routinely forgotten or swept under the rug” (4). According to his supporters, Said had always been a true intellectual who did all that. After exploring Said’s successes and failures, David Herman concludes that “It is only fair to say that the achievements were his alone, but the silences and failures are shared by many” (49). Conclusion

No matter what, Although Chinua Achebe's essay “An Image of Africa” on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness exploded a storm of protests and denunciation in the Western literary circles, still, there is almost a consensus that the novel will never be read again secluded from Achebe's views. Likewise, it seems certain that a critical reading of the literary heritage of both the West and the Orient can never be comprehensive without Edward Said's legacy, a legacy that both supporters and critics acknowledge the profound influence it has had in the field of humanities, a legacy that will always be seen as a form of intellectual resistance against the hegemony of the empire reflected in both popular representations and misinterpretations of the Orient in the Western culture, mainly in the United States.


46

References: Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Fiffin. The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures. London and New York: Routledge, 1989. Bhabha, Homi. “Postcolonial Criticism.” Ed. Bryden. Vol I. 105-133 Boehmer, Elleke. Colonial and Postcolonial Literature. Oxford University Press, 2005. Bové, Paul A. Intellectuals in Power: the Genealogy of Critical Humanism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986. Brydon, Diana ed. And introduction. Postcolonialism: Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies. 5 vols. New York: Routledge, 2006 Herman, David. “Edward Said.” Prospect Magazine. <http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk> 20 Nov. 2003. 11 October, 2013. Kurtz, Stanley. “The hegemonic impulse of post-colonialism.” The Weekly Standard. Vol. 7, No. 04. 10 Aug. 2001. 23 July, 2012 <http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles> Price-Jones, David. “Enough Said”. The New Criterion. Vol. P 60. <http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/enough-said-3743>. 26 January 2008. 5 April, 2013. Edward Said Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage, 1994. "Islam Through Western Eyes." The Nation. ed. April 26 1980. 488-492 <http://www.thenation.com> 1 Jan. 1998. 10 May, 2012 Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978. “Orientalism Reconsidered.” Ed. Brydon. Vol III. 2001. 846-861 "Orientalism 25 Years Later: Worldly Humanism vs. the Empire Builders.” Counterpunch . <http:// www.counterpunch.org/said08052003.html > 5 August, 2003. 6 January, 2012. Representations of an Intellectual. <http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/radio4/transcripts/1993_reith1.pdf > June, 1993. 3 May, 2012. Spivak, Gayatri. "Can the Subaltern Speak?" Ed. Bryden. Vol IV. 1427-1618 Three Women’s Texts and a Critique of Imperialism”. Ed. Bryden. Vol II. 694-713 The Economist. “Edward Said” <http://www.economist.com> 2 Oct., 2003. 6 Jan 2012


47

WOMEN WRITERS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND IN THE WEST

Diane d’Almeida BA Wheaton College, MA Simmons College, Boston University, USA

Abstract Trips to Morocco and Jordan, and later to Syria, have allowed me to pursue my

interest of literature coming from the Arab world. I received a grant from the US government to visit and research libraries in Morocco and Jordan. As a librarian I studied practices that were used in these different countries in their own libraries, and contributed best practices in the United States to local staff. My expertise came from experience at state of the art university libraries and study at Simmons College. During the second Fulbright I filmed women writers and created two websites (http://www.bu.edu/library/guide/caww/ ) and (http://www.womenwritersoftheworld.com/). In my paper I discuss the positive aspects of reading the literature of another culture. I also discuss the women who I video-taped – both Middle Eastern women and Westerners. Those from the Middle East come from: Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, and Syria. Women from the West who I videoed are from: Scotland, India/Germany, Boston and other local areas. All of them are dedicated and are passionate about their professions as writers despite the many obstacles they have encountered. Some have other occupations. Some have families. There are similarities between then – both between the West and the East, and among themselves – that are curious. Understanding other cultures through the writings of these women, and the reading of their works, is instrumental in banishing stereotypes that the media send our way every day. Misconstrued ideas of other cultures can drive public attitudes and policies in unexpected and destructive directions.

Keywords: Women writers, Middle East, culture Introduction

My deeper knowledge of the Arab world started with a Fulbright grant in 2007 to go to Morocco. I am a librarian at Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts, and one of my duties is to collect material relevant to Arabic and Arab culture for our university Library. My job has included nourishing a passion for Arab culture, Arab literature, and Arabic as a language that I have managed to turn to practical use through an electronic research website I created and keep updating.

Before my departure on that Fulbright to Morocco, I contacted Al-Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco and agreed on a mutually beneficial stay for me – I would teach the librarians what I had learned in the United States, and I would in return learn more about a region that I didn’t know well. I received a second Fulbright two years later to go to Jordan and spend months at a University. I contacted Mutah University in Kerak, and we agreed to a similar situation as the one in Morocco.

When I arrived in Jordan, with the second Fulbright, I was informed that the man who had hired me had left the University. No one knew what to do with me. I then proceeded to my own Plan B, which involved filming women writers. I had brought a movie camera with me, and although it was a simple one it served well enough. I was able, through networking


48

and my interest in the subject of writers, to contact and film: Iraqi women living in Jordan; a Palestinian woman living in Jordan; and Jordanese women.

I subsequently made a trip to Syria before the civil war began, and was able to film 3 more women writers. When I returned to the United States I created a website: one for Boston University, which serves also as a bibliography for students/faculty to use as a way to learn about writers from the region (see: http://www.bu.edu/library/guide/caww/ ) and another public website for all to see. (http://www.womenwritersoftheworld.com/). I had a memorable experience being in the presence of these women. I often filmed them in their homes. I learned of the desire to write that inhabited every one of them. I learned of the obstacles they had encountered. I also learned that most of them felt when they were very young that they were ‘meant’ to be a writer.

Arab Women Writers

What seems to particularly characterize the women writers I research? This is a very broad question. As it is hard to generalize, I must speak of these women one by one. I would venture to say that many had a sympathetic father. This father figure encouraged them to follow what they obviously loved doing – writing. I would also say that finances, or the lack thereof, was a major problem for many of them. Some remained married just for this reason. Some were single. Writing is not a well-paying profession and putting food on a table is important. Writing *for* a journal, or a newspaper, or for some publication leads to a more stable life.

In 2009 I had met an Iraqui writer in Cambridge, MA. She was a writer-in-residence at Harvard, working on writing a book of short stories. She had given me names and telephone numbers of writers who were in Jordan – and I made use of this. One thing led to another. Writers exist in little groups and they are all known to one-another. It was not hard to network within this group of people. Attention of any kind is welcomed – and although many had never been to the United States, they welcomed recognition from the Western world—any kind of attention. For the writer needs the reader: not just to pay wages, but also to give meaning to their words. As John Cheever (a well-known American writer) said: “I can’t write without a reader. It’s precisely like a kiss – you can’t do it alone”. Women Writers’ Common Grounds

My initial interest in women from this part of the world and their writing was furthered by the idea that similarities in all writers exist. One can live on a different continent and still share life experiences that can be understood in other countries – if they are well written.

I begin discussions with Lutfiyaa Delaimi, who currently resides in Amman due to the war in Iraq. Her story is interesting because she was supposed to have taken the grant from Harvard University, and she would have spent a year writing. But because she suffered from a mugging in France, shortly before she was to leave, she declined travel and thereby declined the grant from Harvard. Lutfiyaa knew when she was little that she would be a writer. Her stories are about human situations, about the human soul, and often about Arabic women. She writes early in the morning, and finds that writing gives her life meaning. She has received many letters from Arab women who write her to say: Yes, this is my life, you have portrayed it perfectly.

In comparison with Lutfiyaa Delaimi is Rana Azzoubi, a young modern woman who speaks English perfectly. She writes books for children and is interested in having other nationalities relate to her own Jordanian nationality – children relating to similar games, similar adventures, even though they are from vastly different cultures. The children can then begin to understand another culture and bridge the gap that often creates fear and mistrust. One can hear birds singing in the background of this video, as we sat in her back yard.


49

Another writer I videoed was Samiha Khreis, who told me that she was born to be a writer. She feels it is her job to tell stories. Those stories can touch you and trigger your imagination – and can be found in the smallest of things that happen around us. In order to make money to survive, Samiha is a journalist. Her writing process is daily – and she writes for just one person. The reader. Can one’s writing change the world? Samiha tells me that when she was young she felt yes, one could change the world with writings. Older now, she understands that writing will not change the world – but one can change some people and give them hope or happiness. A reader can identify with the experiences that are exposed.

Laila Atrash is a Palestinian writer who was the founder and is currently the head of PEN Jordan. I went to Laila’s home and luxuriated in the richness of the surroundings. She has a similar story to that of many women who I videoed: her mother was a story teller. At the age of 13 Laila produced a story for her teacher who felt she had real talent. She feels strongly that women from the Palestinian world do not demand the respect they deserve. If she can do something for the Palestinian cause in her writing, she is happy.

Basma Nsour, a Jordanian writer, knew she had a gift early one. She was often treated as “the girl who knows how to write” in school. Her writing expressed what she was thinking. Chekhov, Naguib Mahfouz, and O. Henry were some of those writers who inspired her. Beauty, sensitivity, human stories were what attracted her. O.Henry’s writing in particular was a role model for her. Today Basma is the editor of the journal Tyche, from Jordan.

Colette Khoury is a woman with a rich and illustrious past and she is from an important family of poets and writers. We in the West have never heard of her – and yet she is the granddaughter of former Syrian Prime Minister Faris al-Khoury. In 2008 Colette was appointed literary advisor to President Bashar al-Assad. During her interview she stressed on me the point that: “The West knows nothing of us. It thinks we are all terrorists. I would like to change that idea with my writings”. She remains a supporter of Bashar al-Assad. And not only Arabs, but also Westerners need to understand why she would do that. Arab Women Writers in a Larger Context

The last Arab woman writer I will speak of is Salma Khadra Jayyusi who has done so much for Middle Eastern literature in the Western world. She has helped to build a bridge between the East and the West by translating many books written in Arabic into English. She wanted to tell the West that Arabs do have a culture of their own – they do have a culture, and they do have a legacy with literature and with writing. That legacy is not recognized by people in the West because they are not privy to the Arabic culture and they are not acquainted with the Arab culture. They do not know how to read stories so as to understand who Arabs are – what their story is, where they stand.

So Salma Khadra Jayyusi decided that perhaps it was up to her to bridge that large gulf between the East and the West, by translating stories. She also wrote books in the Arabic language about writers, poets from her world. She helped to debunk the myths that exist in the West about those who live in the Middle East – the idea that those in the East have no heritage, no culture, and no literature of their own. Her goal was to enable others to see the Middle East through their lens…..not for things to be written about Middle Easterners, but for they themselves to tell their own stories.

There are interviews on this website of other women who are seriously involved in writing. In Syria: Colette Khoury (who feels that the world does *not* know Middle Easterners, and thinks that they are all terrorists), Colette Bahna, Samar Yazbek, Rosa Hassan. I have also included several writers from the West, to whom I have asked similar questions: from Saskia Jaim, a young woman from Boston University; to Edith Pearlman, a well known American writer of short stories; to Rosanna Warren, a famous faculty member formerly at Boston University and now at the University of Chicago; to Tova Mirvis; to


50

Margot Livesey. All these Western women have been asked similar questions to those posed to Middle Eastern women writers, and their answers follow. Western Women Writers 2011

Saskia Jaim and her work (Urine Lane appears on the website http://womenwritersoftheworld) comes from a father and mother who are writers, and grew up with the written word as part of her environment. She has felt from an early age that writing demands an openness of one’s mind to experiences around oneself. This openness is wonderful and allows one to see things from many different perspectives. There is nothing sacred in one’s life – this is one lesson she has learned. Starting at an early age she was a constant note-taker, and this is one way she may still begin a story. Yet Saskia would advise younger people to find something else to do….besides writing. One can have a much gentler life if one is not a writer! But if one is slated for this profession, persist.

Tova Mirvis has persisted, despite having children. She was always a heavy reader, and her home was filled with books. Most Western writers claim that books influenced them from a very early age. Tova feels today that having parents who were supportive of the arts gave her the confidence to become a writer – she could take the chance to try something very impractical, as if she failed there was always law school. Growing up in a very small community of orthodox Jewish people in Memphis, Tennessee has influenced her writing since. She always wanted to write about community and what it means to be an insider and her living situation afforded her the opportunity. Taking issues from the outside and using things that are inside herself, she has been successful in creating novels of interest including The outside World.

Tova does not believe writing is for everyone, but she feels it is about the pursuit of the ‘human emotional truth’ and the writer can go beyond it even when people don’t want to listen. “The writers’ job is not to provide answers but to ask the hard questions.”

Edith Pearlman knew early on that she wanted to be a writer – she was an avid reader herself. She was praised for her student work, early on, but she was not encouraged to write. Edith is mainly a short story writer, a successful writer, and yet she maintains that rejection never stopped her. She never could financially make it on her own, and still today with her success the situation has not changed. She is married however – and lives with her husband’s income. Quiet and privacy are important. She started writing in the basement, near the furnace, when her children were young. Gradually she moved upstairs, as they moved out. Stories may come from a dream; an observation; an anecdote; or something entirely invented. Binocular Vision is one of her short stories collections which won the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Edith feels that a certain struggling in one’s life, when one is writing, might be a benefit. Another Western writer Margot Livesey – a Scottish woman – agrees. Her interview is interesting, as she is a successful writer like Edith Pearlman and yet does not live on her own book publishing success. Margot was not a natural writer. At an early age she wanted to be anything but a writer: working for Oxfam, Amnesty or another non-profit organization was very appealing. Becoming a philosophy professor was another prospective profession. Her parents were both appalled at her choice of the profession she chose, and died before they saw any success on the part of their daughter.

Margot Livesey supported herself early on with various grants from different organizations geared towards writers. She is published at the moment, but feels that even if she were not published she would continue writing. Regarding subjects covered -- Margot tries to find an intersection between personal preoccupations of her own and public concerns. The subject for one of her books The Missing World came to her because of news surrounding a woman who had lost part of her memory. Repressed memory and the inaccuracy of memory became a subject of interest to her, around which she created a story.


51

In terms of writers and finances: it seems that in Canadian writers are extremely well supported in a number of ways. Many writers can stay afloat financially without teaching. In the United States the primary source for writers is academia. It is the Universities and colleges that keep most writers afloat. In Britain many writers work in journalism, television, radio, print media to supplement their income. These are three different models, coming from three different worlds. Lastly, her advice for young writers is: don’t enter academia even though it may make you feel like a grownup and it may seem seductive as you are part of an intellectual community. “Teaching is a dreadful job if you want to write because there are no nuclear boundaries, it is incredibly demanding, and it is poorly paid. Do anything BUT write! So….learn to drive a bus, learn to mix drinks, learn to milk goats.” Conclusion

Stories are some of the most effective mediums to reflect everyday life in any culture, and that is why distortions of any culture can be dangerous. Not only because such distortions are oversimplifications or flatly inaccurate, but because cultural misapprehensions can drive public attitudes and policies in unexpected and destructive directions. Writing fiction thus extends the life and reach of a culture, and writers telling these stories recreate everyday life. A good way to learn about a country is to read its fiction, and when the life of real men and women surface in this fiction, then audience’s worlds apart can relate to them.

Writing, indeed, is a passion, and so is reading. I have mentioned some names and some works of women writing around the world. You can read further about them and about their works on the websites that exist. You will broaden your understanding of another culture if you do so. Good writing is seductive and educational at the same time. It can mean that one becomes part of a small group of persons who are involved in the same thing. Often they are intellectuals. Whether one lives in the West or in the Middle East, writing gathers readers from various cultural backgrounds and provides them with the wisdom of these stories.

In addition to publishing woes and successes and companionship, Arab and Western women writers share a good deal. Themes in their writings include: pride; women’s place; dreams; death; jealousy. Certainly the preoccupations are common, but more important are the hard questions writers on both sides pose to us to ponder. We might not always want to know about other cultures and concerns, but it is baffling to ignore ones posed by our own writers. These questions are always relevant to our lives--the real lives of those writers, and the lives of those around them. References: Casserly, Tom. Director Undergraduate Distance Services. Boston University, Boston Massachusetts. Meltsner, Michael. George J. and Kathleen Waters Matthews Distinguished University Professor. Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts. Mustafa, Shakir. Associate Professor of Arabic, Northeastern University. Boston, Massachusetts


52

THE CONCEPT OF LOVE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MAULANA RUMI AND SHAH ABDUL LATIF BHITTAI

Mubarak Ali Lashari PhD Scholar at International Islamic University

Muhammad Safeer Awan Dr. Assistant Professor at International Islamic University,

Institue of English Language and Literature, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan

Abstract

In this comparative study, it is tried to explore some parallels of the concept of love between two great mystic poets, i.e. Maulana Rumi and Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai. Instead of several differences in their perspectives like, homeland, language and bringing up in different social environment and backgrounds, there is clear manifestation of the similarities in their philosophies. Through this research it can be seen that Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai seems as a spiritual disciple of Maulana Rumai; consequently this vision has been the main focus of investigation.

Keywords: Concept of love, Maulana Rumi, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai Introduction Maulana Rumi and Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai: Brief Introduction

The greatest Persian poet Jalau’din Rumi was born on 30th of September 1207 in Balkh, today’s Afghanistan, and died on 17th December 1273 in Konya, present-day Turkey, where he spent years of his precious life. His body was laid to rest beside his father and a splendid shrine was erected there which attracts a large number of visitors, Muslims and non-Muslims, from all parts of the world every year.

The dance of Whirling Dervishes called ‘Sama’ is a part of the inspiration of Rumi which today is known as a part of the Turkish tradition and culture. The ritual was registered in the list of UNESCO’s World Inatangible Heritage few years ago. Sama represents a mystical journey of man’s spiritual ascent through mind and love to a state of ‘perfection’.

Rumi composed his poetry in Persian language and his works are widely read in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan where Persian is spoken widely. Rumi’s poetry has been translated in all the major languages of the world. He lived most of his life under the Seljuk Empire. Rumi started his career as a preacher and theologian but after meeting Shams-e-Tabrizi, he became a mystic or Sufi. Rumi composed the largest corpus of lyric poetry in the Persian language, amounting to 40,000 verses. Jalal-u–din Rumi was more than just a poet. He was a perfect master. His poems were more down to earth than the great master poet Hafiz, thus have been easier to translation; being more digested into English vocabulary. The popularity of his poetry has spread in the West because of its heart-felt themes of love-beloved mysticism, and its spiritual joy which seems to originate even from the most distorted versions in English.

Rumi has been hailed by the Western scholars as the greatest mystic poet of all times. The translation of his poems into English language became the best-seller book in the US in 1997. Ever since, the book of Rumi;s poetry has always been among the best selling books in the United States. (www.chnpress.com/new).

Rumi’s life was greatly influence by two persons. One of them is the stimulator of Rumi’s spiritual and poetic creation, Hazrat Shamas Tabriz. In him, Rumi found the perfect


53

image of the Divine Beloved; he was seeking since long. He lived along with his beloved Shamas Tabriz at his house for a year or two but spiritually remained inseparable. Due to that illustrious personage Rumi composed his Diwan-I-Shamas-Tabrizi (lyrics of Sahms of Tabriz) and dedicated to the memory of his alter ego (Nicholson, 1998). Another personage who influenced Rumi after Shams Tabriz was Husamu’l-Din ibn Muhammad ibn Hasan ibn Akhi Turk, whose name he mystically associated with his greates work, the celebrated Mthnavi (epic poem). He calls the Mathnavi “the book of Husam” (Ibid).

On the other hand, one of the greatest mystic poets, Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai was born at Hala Haveli, a village in Hyderbad district, Sindh, Pakistan in 1649, A.D. His father Shah Habib was also renowned poet and his great grandfather, Shah Karim Bulri Waro was also eminent poet of Sindhi language and is called “the morning star of Sindhi poetry”. Shah Latif inherited the religious traditions from his family as they observed the prayers and fasting regularly and he himself was embedded in these traditions. Shah Latif was contemplative one since his childhood. He spent most of his life in isolation and liked to stay at desert. After coming to maturity, he spent most of his time on the mound of sand thence he came to be called “Bhittai” (one who lives on the mounds of sand) and to this day he is famous as Bhittai. He adopted all kinds of tracts in the search of truth and reality. He accompanied, like Siddhartha of Hermann Hesse, ascetics (yogis) for years and wandered all parts of the sub-continent. Not only with them but also with his disciples, he wandered to observe the nature and beauty of the creation. He visited different places and met several mystics, poets, and saints while traveling. Because of that close observation of the things, he became able to depict the scenes of nature in his poetry beautifully. It is believed fact that Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai always kept three books with him e.g. Holy Qur’an, Mathnavi of Maulana Rumi and Shah Karim jo Risalo. That is why, the influence of these books can be found anywhere in his poetry.

This great mystic poet of Sindh died in 1752 and is buried at the Bhit, near Hyderabad Sindh. Every year his “Urs” is celebrated that attracts thousands of people from all over the country. Every night the “Mehfil e Sama” (the function of music) is held at his shrine in Bhit Shah. Interestingly, since the death of the great mystic poet no single night went without the sama up to this day. Love Concepts of Maulana Rumi and Shah Latif: The concept of love is central to almost all the Sufi, mystic poets. Love is the instinct or basic expression of one’s inner self. Through this expression of love humanity came to live in coherence and accepted each other in the system of co-existence because for Sufis there is no distinction of creed, caste; they believe only in love. Rumi expresses these feelings in the following lines: Come, come, whoever you are, Wanderer, idolater, worshipper of fire, Come, and come yet again, Ours is not a carvan of despair. (Cited in Abdul Hakim, 1977). Inviting towards the love, Shah Latif expresses the same view: هلو هلو ڪاڪ تڙين، جتي نينهن اڇل،

سڀڪو پسي پرين کي. نڪا جهل نه پل، Halo, Halo, Kak Taren, Jity Neenh Uchhal, Na Ka Jhal, Na Pal, Sabhko Pase Preen Khe. (Come, Come on towards Kaak place, where there is pull of love; and there is no prohibition (discrimination on any basis) all may have opportunity to love, to hope). Above principle of unrestricted love is very common with both the mystic poets. It looks like a religion in their peculiar treatment of the love. Both are paradoxically embedded


54

in the religion of love. Apart from the love there is no religion, no creed and no attachment for them. If somebody has ‘love’ that is all he/she needs. Rumi says: He whom destiny places among the group of lovers becomes free mosque and temple. He whose mode of life is annihilation and Faqr (detachment from the world) has neither relation nor belief nor gnosis nor religion. (Cited in Abdul Hakim, 1977). Same ideas are expressed by Shah Latif in the following words: روزا نمازون، ايء پڻ چڱو ڪم، او ڪو ٻيو فهم، جنهن سان پسجي پرين کي.Roza ain nimazoon aee pun chago kam Ao ko byo fahm, jenh san pasjy preen khe. (Fasting and offering prayers (religious obligations) are good works, but those are not the ultimate paths of seeking lover, that is another way, which is love). In the above-quoted examples, Rumi and Latif stand in almost complete agreement. One says that ‘group of lovers becomes free from mosques and temple’ and the other says that ‘religious and other rituals are not the ultimate ways for the lover, thus lover can be had without religion or creed’. At this point Latif seems admitting the influence of Rumi in that concept and at many places Latif admits it too. Love as a Cause of Creation Sufis/mystics are of the opinion that this universe is created because of love, which stimulated the Creator to create this universe. They refer it to the love of God with His beloved Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h). Maulana Rumi describes it in a form of God’s discourse with love as: God said to love, “If not thy duty, how should I pay attention to the mirror of an existence”. Here God directly addresses the love saying that without you I had not created anything. Here Rumi is expressing it directly, while, Shah Latif describes it in a somewhat different way:

، جڏهن ڪن پيوم،”الست بربڪم“ قلب سين، تڏهن تت چيوم،” قالوبلي “

تنهن وير ڪيوم، وچن ويڙهيچن سين.Alast be rabakum, jadenhen kan payom Kalobala kalab sen tadhen tit chayom Tenh weer kayom, wachan wehichan seen. (‘Am I not your Creator?’ When I heard by my ears at the time of birth, “yes you are” said my heart and at that moment I promised to love my fellow being). In the above lines Shah attaches the cause of creation with the love of humans which, in his view, is the true love to God. Furthermore, Rumi calls ‘love’ as mirror in the following words:

The world is like a mirror, displaying love’s perfection. O friend who has ever seen a part greater than its whole.

Love is never separate from its beloved and both are integral part of each other. And God has created this love to see Himself, His own reflection in mirror. Shah Latif affirms this statement as: Panhe passé pan khe, panhe mehboob Oanhe khalaqe khoob, panhe talib tin jo. پاڻهي پسي پاڻ کي، پاڻهي محبوب، پاڻهي لقي خوب پاڻهي طالب تن جو.(He sees Himself, He Himself is Beloved. He created the love and beauty and Himself is Lover of that).


55

At another place Shah Latif says that the Creator and the creation are actually same as in the above lines Maulana Rumi says, following verse of Shah Latif seem as reflection of Rumi’s saying. Shah says: پڙاڏو سڏ، ور وائي جي لهين، هئا اڳي گڏ، ٻڌڻ ٻه ٿيا.Parado ain sad, war waye ji lahin, Hua aggai gadd, buddhan me ba thiya. (Sound and echo, if you recognize well, are same, Lover and Beloved were same but in obvious make out became two, separate, but actually not.)

They find much harmony in views to establish the eternal concept of love in different tones and temperaments of discourse, but their basic objective seems to support each other, though unintentional and natural. In this way, we can find many similarities in the views of the both mystic poets regarding the creation of this universe and the phenomenon of love with God, the Creator.

Ishq-e-Haqiqi (Love of God / Infinitive Love) In the realm of love, in the mystic traditions, it is a well-accepted fact that every kind of love ultimately leads and should lead to the love of God that is said to be the infinitive love, which in the Eastern tradition is known as Ishq-e-Haqiqi. This kind of philosophy is found with both the mystic poets. In this context, for Rumi the love of God is a fire that facilitates him, he says: His (God’s) love is a fire that consumes difficulties: the daylight sweeps away every phantom. Shah Latif also calls the love of God as fire; آري عشق جي اندر آڳ ٻري.Aari ji ishq ji andar aag bari (In God’s love there is fire inside me).

Moulana Rumi, in his treatment of God’s love, does not take one side of human love to God but the love is equal from both sides. In other words, if a man is in love with the God, the God also seeks out him. This phenomenon is exquisitely described in Mathnavi 111, as Universal Love: When love of God waxes in thy heart, Beyond any doubt God hath love for thee. This is the classical mystic treatment of the love, in which the love is not one-sided but from both the sides. This affirmation is also confirmed by Shah Latif as: تو تنين جي تات، تن پڻ آهي تنهنجي، هٿ ڪاتي ڳڙ وات، پڇڻ پر پرين جي.To tineen ji taat, tin pun aahi tuhnji, Hath kati gurr waat, puchhan par preen ji. (For whom you have desire/love, he has same thing for you; having knife in hand and sweet in mouth is the way to ask for love.)

It is maintained that if someone has desire/love for someone else who shares the same degree of desire, it means that there is not a one way desire on this path. Furthermore, Moulana Rumi propounds that the Ishq-e-Haqiqi or the Real Love is salvation from all kinds of difficulties and similarly, for Latif, it is a burning of self and then there is no pain, means self annihilation. But, in the following lines, Shah Latif expresses the same feelings as that of Rumi: پسي پهر پنهون جي، ننهن سين نيڻ ٺريام، گوندر وسريام، سکن شاخون مڪيون.Passi pehr punhoon jo, nuhn sen nenn tharyam, Goondar wisryam, sukhan shakhhoon mukkyun. (Having beloved’s (God’s) kindness, I came in comfort completely from nails of hands to eyes, all the difficulties went away and pleasure grew like plants).


56

So, for both the great poets, the love of God is the symbol of comfort, happiness, eternal pleasure and solution of all the difficulties. Furthermore, Rumi, the mystic, expresses his ‘ishaq-e-haqiqi’ as sacrificing his soul and abandoning himself: His un-sweetness is sweet to my soul: may my soul be Sacrificed to the Beloved who grieves my heart! I am in love with grief and pain for the sake of pleasing My peerless king

The concept of self sacrifice is unique with the mystical philosophy of the sub-continent, where, the sufis see their own image in sacrifices and it is the test of the lover for them. Not only this, but, also in the above lines, Rumi describes ‘unsweeetness as sweet’ and the same thing is described by Latif:

دڪان، هعاشق معشوقن جو،وٺي ويه پئيج پيش پريان جي، پٽي وجهي پاڻ، ته تون تنين ساڻ، سدا رهم سرخرو.Aashiq! Mashoqan jo, wathhi weh dukhan, Paij pesh piryan ji, patti wijhee paan, Ta toon taneen saan, sada raham surkharu.

Here, for Shah Latif, only becoming a lover is not sufficient but it is the first step towards the success in becoming one with the beloved, but, when the lover sacrifices himself without any delay he attains eternal success. In another sense, Rumi’s ‘unsweetness is sweet’ is exactly the same with Shah Latif and seems as if Latif has expressed it in his own words: محبوبن جي ملڪ جي، ڪانهي ڪڙائي،.آهي مٺائي، چکين جي چيت ڪري Mehboob je mulk ji, kanhe karrai, Aahe mithhai, chakhen je chet kare. (There is no bitterness (un-sweetness) at the beloved’s side, all is sweet if you taste from your affectionate desire)

Thus, first condition for both the poets is love. Then, all the difficulties, all the sorrows and all the unsweetnesses are nothing but just steps towards the real destination, the love of God. In that destination, someone is lost, there is no “I” nor “we” but “Beloved”. Rumi says: O Thou Whose soul is free from “we” and “I”, O thou Who art the essence of the spirit in men and women, When men and women one, Thou art One. (Ibid)

As it is well accepted in Eatern mysticism that self-annihilation is the attainment of beloved or love similar evidences are teeming at both the mystic poets. Thus at them there is no ego, no self praise for meeting the real beloved; one needs to go beyond the ego and the self; that is the message of the mystics. Latif also shares the same views: سڻي ويهه ڪنن سين، ورائيج مه وري، هادي جي هدايت جي، آهي ايء ڳري، تن سڳي ساه سري، جنم، ماريا نفس ماٺ سين.Sunni wenn kannan seen, wariaij ma wary, Hadi ji hidayat ji, aahi aea garri, Tan sagi saah sari, jin maryi nafas math seen. (Whatsoever you listen, don’t reply ever, this is Beloved’s (God’s instruction), so important, along with the whole body and soul, kill your ownness, “I” and “me”).

In these lines, there is the concept of negation, no-“self” before the love of Beloved (God) and everything is sacrificed and and then there comes the real love or “Ishq-e-Haqiqi”. At most places, it is observed that Shah Latif seems to be Moulana Rumi’s spiritual disciple. He follows Moulana Rumi’s philosophy ardently and proudly.


57

Mijazi Ishaq (Worldly Love) On the perspective of manifestation of worldly love or “Mijazi Ishaq”, both the mystic

poets, again, seem to belong to the same school of thought. When one praises his beloved ardently and ambitiously, the other justifies it from a different angel. One lays basis of that love, the other keeps building over it magnificently. Rumi says in his worldly love or ‘Mijazi Ishq”: They are in each other along.

When there is mention of love story, the lover listens very carefully that every detail may be understood and after finding that thing the lover starts to search the beloved. It is not known by the lover that love is blind, it cannot see, and the beloved is his part, in his own existence not elsewhere. So, minutley the observation is ascribed, so sensitively is touched the concept of love. By the same way Shah Latif affirms that statement as: اندر آئينو ڪري، پرين سو پسيج،

هو ماڻين.ڳنهي راه رميج، ته مشا Andar aaino kare, preen so paseej, Inhee rah rameej, ta mushahido manen. (Make your existence mirror and watch your beloved; in this way you can observe him because ‘apart/out of you there is nothing’).

According to Shah Latif, it is one’s own observation and out of that observation they do not exist. It is love that makes their meetings possible and that is the only way. In this context, Rumi’s views are not different from Shah: We are mirror as well as face in it We are tasting the taste this minute Of eternity. We are pain And what cures pain, both. We are The sweet cold water and the jar that pours. I want to hold you close like a lute, So we can cry out with loving. You would rather throw stones at a mirror?

I am your mirror, and here are the stones. In the context of above lines, it seems that the lover and beloved are eternal part of

each other, they are not detached. One is the image of another and the both can see each other in the mirror. And that perception is the treatment/cure of the pain of love. The pain as defined by Budhha as “Surrom Dukhum Dukhum” (everything is a pain), the same pain is loving but perception of that image/mirror is essential. Shah Latif defines it as: ڪشي ڪان ڪمان ما، ميان مار م مون،

ئي تو کي لڳي. مون آهين تون، متان تنهنجو Kashi kan Kaman man, mian mar ma moon Moon me aahin toon, matan tuhnjo e to khe lagy. (Don’t withdraw your sword and don’t point to murder me, my dear, you resides in me, so you may hit yourself)

Rumi gives it the name of mirror to his/her lover towards which the stone is thrown, the result would be the break down of both as both are made of same substance, while Latif calls it existence towards one points arrow and warns if you throw that arrow to him it will destroy arrower’s own existence/being as Rumi says if you can throw the stone at the mirror that would break himself; because it is his own image that is reflected in the mirror. And the image of the love is spotless for both the mystic poets. Rumi says; The sun is love. The lover, A speck circling the sun.

Rumi calls the sun as love and lover, yet there are spots around that; thus how can it be like the lover. Shah Latif by the same way addresses the moon instead of the sun as:


58

چوان سچ، جي مٺي مور نه ڀائين، ڊچن ڳچ، ناڀريڪڏهين اڀرين ٿوڙو، ڪڏهين

جو منهن ٻري مچ، سو پدم پرين جي نه پڙينChand chawan sach, ji mathi moor na bhain, Kadhen ubhren thoriro, kadhen ubhren gach, Jo muh me barri mach, so padam pryan ji na paren. (Moon! If you don’t mind I speak truth; sometimes you rise little sometimes much, whatever your full light is that is not equal to the foot of my beloved’s shining).

Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai clearly definies his beloved’s beauty, addressing the moon, because moon is always symbol of beauty in poetry but Shah Latif has found the specks like Rumi found in the sun. In this way, for both the mystic poets, there is nothing as beautiful as their beloved or the loved one.

And while in complete assimilation with loved one there is no need for any exhortation or suggestion from any one because loving the beloved is not only to not return but also to go forward. Rumi describes this feeling very beautifully: In that quarter where love is increasing (my) pain, Bu Hanifa and Shafi gave no instruction. At the moment of love, everything is forgotten and all the rules, instructions and suggestions are of no use. They can help no more because the pain of love reaches at the peak. Absolutely that same thing is expressed by Shah Latif: Mirron khanyanm maas, tab he had halandum hot de

م ماس، ته به هڏ هلندم هوت ڏي.مرون کاني (Even wild beasts may eat my flesh, yet I shall go to my beloved with only bones).

This is very extreme of the concept of love for both the poets. One refuses the suggestions directly whereas, the other declines the fears of the wild creatures and rejects those fears and suggestions indirectly. Both are keen in their search and move towards the love and beloved at any condition. Love of Humanity

Not only there is ample manifestation of ‘Haqiqi Ishaq” and ‘Mijazi Ishq”, but, several other aspects of love are also there. Both the poets treat them justly and uniquely. Yet, there is a love of mankind apart from other concepts. Rumi treats mankind without any gender discrimination as in the poem “The Love of Woman”: If you rule your wife outwardly, yet inwardly you are ruled by her whom you desire; This is characteristic of Man: in other animals love is Lacking, and that shows their inferiority.

On the other hand, Shah Latif like Rumi has given importance to woman without any gender bias. Rumi inculcates the importance of woman quoting tradition from Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h) so that he may make woman equal in love because love is the characteristic of mankind not the animlas. And that love is incomplete without woman. And in this direction, Shah Latif prays to God for the whole humanity:

سدائين، ڪرين مٿي سنڌ سڪار، !سائينم دوست مٺا دالدار، عالم سڀ آباد ڪرين!Sainm sadain, Karin mathe Sindh sukar, Dost mitha dildar, aalam sabh abad Karin. (O God, may you on Sindh Bestow abudance rare; Beloved! Let All the world share, Thy Grace, and fruitful be) (Sur Sarang: Monsoon)


59

Conclusion It can be concluded from the above discussion regarding the concept of love of the

great mystic poet Moulana Rumi and Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, that there are several simmilarties regarding the concept of love and their philosophy of love. First of all, it is clear that Moulana Rumi was predecessor to Shah Latif who was his successor. Though, there is a difference of centuries yet there is almost the same philosophy and realization of love. Despite these simmilarites, there are some differences in their narrations too. First of all, Rumi in his treatment of the subjects, takes complete or comprehensive stories of the narrations, whereas, Shah Latif takes some important and most significant events from a story and doesnot narrate the whole story. Secondly, Rumi’s narration is direct and to the point/straightforward dealing with the concepts and stories, whereas, in Shah’s poetry, there is an indirect and artistic narration. Rumi describes all the things by himself like a story teller, whereas, latif takes his characters to describe his feelings and to convey his message. While considering the sources of both the great poets, one can observe that Rumi uses metaphysical sources more that Shah Latif, who takes every example from his native land and folk stories with indigenous symbols. In this context, there is overwhelming religious and scholarly manifestation in Rumi’s poetry whereras, Shah Latif has simple and common things for expression. Latif uses two sources very often, firstly Holy Quran and secondly the teachings of Rumi. Rumi too usues Holy Quran as a main source of his philosophy but he also takes advantage of Shariah, like using schools of Hanfi and Shaafi, something rare with Shah Latif. Last but not the least, Shah Latif depicts the love of his land that is absent with Rumi and such belongingness with the native land is not quoted. This statement is based on the workshop on Rumi held at the Department of English Language, IIUI, Islamabad. In the seminar, Dr Jawad, while responding to a question said that Rumi did not pay attention on the conditions of fall of Baghdad and the attacks of Mangol on Persia. On the other hand, Shah Latif condemned foreign invasions on Sindh and suggested the locales to fight against them. [email protected] References: Baldock, J. (2005). The essence of Rumi. New Jersey: Chatwell Books. Gurbakhshani, H. M (1992). Shah jo risalo. Hyderabad Sind: Shah Abdul Latif Bhit Shah Saqafti Markaz Hamik, K. A. Dr. (1997). The metaphysics of Rumi. Lahore: The Institute of Islamic Culture 2, club road Nicholson, R. A. (1998). Rumi, poet and mystic. Oxford: Oxford Oneworld Publications Syed, G. M (2005). Paigham-e-latif (The message of Latif). Dadu, Sann: G. M. Syed Academy http://www.chnpress.com/news/?/section=28id=6694. Retrieved on 23/05/2008 http://www.shakeelurrehman.com/bookrumijamaliat.htm


60

RACHID AL DAIF’S DEAR MR. KAWABATA: AN ALLEGORY OF THE RECONSTRUCTION OF POST-WAR BEIRUT

Daisy Waked Head of the English Section of the Language Center

Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, Lebanon

Abstract

The reconstruction of postwar Beirut projects the image of a modern city, oblivious of its past. Yet, the remnants of war are in constant struggle with this new identity of Beirut. Parallel to this dilemma, Rachid Al Daif’s narrator in Dear Mr. Kawabata witnesses a struggle between tradition and modernity. This article discusses the sources of both dilemmas and their manifestations: the narrator’s dilemma is an allegory of the reconstructed Beirut due to the driving forces that constitute their struggles. Amnesia and the ghost-like presence of memory are the two opposing forces that result in the schizophrenic identity of Beirut and in the narrator’s struggle. Both Beirut and the narrator experience a loss of memory at times and its haunting shadowy presence at others. Hence the inevitable need to explore the remnants of the memory of war to bring about the conscious awareness and acceptance of the past.

Keywords: Beirut, Al Daif, dilemma, memory, war, amnesia Introduction The schizophrenic reality of postwar Beirut is exemplified in Rachid Al Daif’s Dear Mr. Kawabata (1999). Garish Beirut stands today in all majesty, after a long history of wars and destruction. A prisoner in symmetry, a victim of amnesia activists, Beirut is the two-faced city. In one embrace, the re-born city adopts the modernized future and in the other, clings to a past too painful to be forgotten. The re–constructed Beirut is writing itself through its colorful, impersonal facades and wide, lifeless streets. Between these lines, can be read suffocated wails of the war’s memory and ever- present shadows of death. Echoing Gibran Kahlil Gibran’s words, Beirut utters its dilemma: “It is not a garment I cast off this day, but a skin that I tear with my own hands.” A witness of the Lebanese war, Rachid Al Daif was born in 1945 in Northern Lebanon into a Maronite family. He is a lecturer in Arabic language and literature at the Lebanese University in Beirut, as well as a novelist and poet. In Dear Mr. Kawabata, he attempts to express the dilemma between modernity and tradition; the future and the past, taking Kawabata’s The Master of Go (1951) as his model. Al Daif addresses Kawabata who tasted death and rebirth. Beirut too, hasn’t fully recovered from war and its ghosts. It has to go through death in order to live again and have a future. Al Daif’s Dear Mr. Kawabata begins with his encounter with “an uncannily image of himself.” But that person “walked in a different direction, with a different gait, wearing different clothes” (D, 1). This was the narrator’s friend who left the party before the war started. He hasn’t killed a soul. He is neat and well- attired, and sleeps easily at night, with a clear conscience. The narrator hates him. He is himself, but a polished, smiling, healthy image of himself. We hear the narrator’s laments and recollections of war, and we sense his struggle with the man’s haunting image. If we examine the binary opposition that engages both the reconstructed Beirut and Al Daif’s narrator, we would find a set of driving forces. On one hand, there is death/ war/ past and on the other, rebirth/ peace/ future.


61

This article discusses this tearing dilemma in all its aspects based on Al Daif’s Dear Mr. Kawabata and specific examples of the reconstruction of postwar Beirut. Not much has been written about this dilemma that is veiled by the modernized image of Beirut-as-commodity. The purpose of this study is to bring to the surface Beirut’s consciousness as a city with a past, with recollections, thoughts and desires. Beirut is not a mere stone-city, a festooned, symmetrical work of bricolage waiting to be consumed. In fact, Jade Tabet, architect, author of “La cité aux deux places” and editor of Beyrouth: La Brûlure Des Rêves, questions the perfected image of Beirut: “Why, then, this feeling of unease that emerges from the rehabilitated façades, the strange impression of strolling in a décor de theâtre?” This article refuses the modern passive consuming of Beirut as an objet d’art. Instead, it provides a microscopic gaze on Beirut’s identity and spies on the hidden corners of the city. Nasser Rabbat in “The Interplay of History and Archeology in Beirut” admits his concern for the loss of Beirut’s identity as a “realm of memory”:

“In the not –so-distant future, when the new downtown with its tall buildings and wide, tree-lined boulevards is completed and the face of postwar Beirut is totally remade… the city as a whole in its new garb will cease to be a milieu de mémoire, or an environment for memory.”

Beirut needs to be conscious of the duplicity that modernism forces upon its existence today. Just as Marx admits in his Communist Manifesto (1848) that the way beyond the contradictions would have to lead through modernity, not out of it, this article delineates the importance of the conscious awareness of Beirut’s struggle. In fact, the pathological remnants of the war’s memory have to be explored and most importantly, exposed. This is the act of losing the old halo and finding a new one. This article re-writes a modern city in the Barthean way: “jouir d’une défiguration.” To deflate the pompous image of Beirut and re-weave its fine threads, are the main concerns of this study. Dismissing the Beirutan fallacy of “les jeux sont faits”, this article announces: “qu’il y ait un jeu”! The game of re–writing Beirut begins with Rachid’s narrator who wonders why his life hasn’t flashed before his eyes when he died: “No memories of any sort whatever passed in front of my eyes” (D, 2). Near–death experience, which usually changes the whole existence of the dying, is not effective in the narrator’s case. He suffers the burden of those memories that lie deep in him but cannot see the light. Pain is the only manifestation of this strange experience:

“Nothing, not even the world after death, could distract me from the pain I was feeling. My pain was the only thing to occupy my senses when I returned to life from the vastness of death” (D, 2).

The absence of memory may be the deliberate subconscious dismissal of the past and its burdens. The narrator’s attempt to erase the wounds of his past and cancel all its traces results in this expressive pain. His desire to display his life’s events and his fear to live them again are the two driving forces that constitute his pain.

Fear and desire are the two expressions one can see today on the disfigured face of Barakat Building that still stands on the green line. This building was shared by both the western and eastern parts of Beirut as an eternal witness of their atrocities. It shares the pain of Al Daif’s narrator: the suffocating pain of a fragmented, almost extinct memory. Barakat building-halfway between Monot, the street of restaurants and nightclubs and the new commercial central district- stands alone on the shattered fragments of memory. Deserted and sad, its empty windows and broken walls echo the distant howls of the war. This monument once baptized by the unholy fires no longer recalls what it once looked like. A symbol of the still surviving, but quickly fading memory of Beirut, this building is the last monument of war that can be found in Beirut today. In 1997, a decree was issued to demolish it. The International press adopted the situation, especially when a young architect Mona Al Hallak


62

opposed the project: “This building is Lebanon. It symbolizes the beauty of pre-war. During the war, it was a spot for shooters. Now, they want to erase it to become a parking lot.”

An old scar on the face of Beirut, this building suffers the pain of forgetfulness. It neither belongs to the glorious pre-war Beirut nor to the years of painful war and it definitely can’t feel at home in the city’s millennium framework. In his article “Shadows of a Past Life amidst Beirut’s Ruins: How do we deal with a threatened memory?” Wael Abdel Fattah argues that Barakat Building:

“…remains a bridge between a hypothetical city, and another present in its noise, fear, mute violence and growing contrasts…The yellow building encompasses all of Beirut and its indefinite future.”

The fate of this building was left on hold until the Municipality of Beirut prepared an ambitious project to transform the forsaken building into ‘Beit Beirut Museum and Cultural Center’ which is projected to be a museum, a cultural and artistic meeting place, a facility for archiving research and studies on the city of Beirut throughout history and an urban planning office for the city of Beirut. The only obvious reality is that Barakat Building, due to the weight of its crashed wall, will never restore its past existence, just like Al Daif’s narrator will never be able to see his life flashing before his eyes. The truth that near death experience promises is the awakening that neither of them went through. The narrator failed to grasp the truth that he could only know through revelation in a moment of mixed fear and desire. Beirut too, holds the moment of revelation in suspense. Isn’t it after all, Italo Calvino’s city par excellence: the city that is drawn by its whims and fears?

Caught in a situation that requires reconciliation with the past, Rachid (Al Daif’s narrator) and Beirut (exemplified in Barakat building) show the first manifestations of an evident dilemma. The narrator, in an attempt to give voice to his inner-struggle writes his long letter to Kawabata. As for Beirut, it manifests its own dilemma in its post war reconstruction. At times mute and shy, violent and provocative at others, these two struggles are discussed in this part of the article. Al Daif’s narrator appoints Kawabata as king and regards him as “The arbitrator obeyed because of his sincerity” (D, 8). Kawabata is the king and the arbitrator in the narrator’s dilemma because he wrote about an intense struggle in The Master of Go. This struggle takes the form of the Go game in which the old master is challenged to a marathon by a younger player. The opposition is thus clearly between the old and the new generations, between a master and a young player. They only make a few moves a day. The pressure and tension of the game destroy the health of the master. He dies shortly after the game ends. In Dear Mr. Kawabata, Al Daif’s narrator expresses his great sympathy with the old master. The latter suffers silently with dignity and extreme pain. Rachid sees in this game many similarities with the struggle he wants to write about.

“I also wanted, like you, to write a story in which I would speak, through an ordinary event, about the clash between the climate of the age (I mean modernity with its threats and challenges) and local people, I mean tradition” (D, 9).

This clash between the past and the future, tradition and modernity is the result of his inner conflict. The narrator is unable to tame his memory and reconcile it with his present. This clash is the subject matter of his letter. It is a clearly great opposition between powerful forces. The generation of the past (tradition) wouldn’t accept the scientific discoveries and the world’s evolution. In fact, the narrator had to insist to his parents that the world was round, not flat. In the same sense, Joseph Bourke emphasizes the intensity of the struggle in “Tragic Vision in Kawabata’s The Master of go”.

“The most fundamental level of that conflict is the confrontation of two completely different ways of understanding the nature of human existence at the moment when one is giving way to the other and while both are still vital enough to sustain the conflicts intensity.”

The two conflicting forces in the narrator’s struggle are both powerful, each in its own way. Each of them has a different conception of human nature: tradition refuses all attempts


63

of change and evolution, while modernity believes only in its own science and its only faith is in itself.

The clash between tradition and modernity is mirrored by a parallel struggle: that of Beirut’s past and future. In fact, Beirut that embraces both its whims and fears is in constant search for an identity. Barakat building on one hand represents the fragmented past and Fosh Street, on the other, the modernized part of the city. Barakat building, an empty and still non-recovered monument of the past war is the force that drives the city back while Fosh Street, with all its modern attractions and lively noise, promises Beirut an appealing vision of a modern future. It is quite similar to the opposition between the narrator’s belief in the roundness of the earth and the disbelief of his parents who don’t believe in the continuity of life due to their static, limited existence.

Rachid’s narrator admits that only Kawabata can understand him: “Is it, I wonder, that you have set me free, through the act you undertook in the last moment of your life?” (D, 17)

In fact, Kawabata committed suicide in 1972. Al Daif may see in Kawabata’s act a conscious and brave confrontation with one’s fear. Kawabata was the master of his own driving forces and had control over his existence. This ultimate mastery over the self is a manifestation of power. Self-realization preceded self-destruction in Kawabata’s case. Kawabata confronted his fears and realized his existence before he ended his life. Rachid envies this decision and hopes to reach the same ending after writing about his own conflict. Kawabata tasted a conscious death. This conscious death or “closure” is what Beirut needs. The open, undecided fate of Beirut has to be determined. Beirut still stands in shame and helplessness. Unaware of its own reality, past and future, it hangs in the open winds. Is it doomed to have Barakat Building’s fate or participate in the virtual laughs of Fosh’s exotic nights? Whatever the way the narrator and Beirut chose, one thing is certain: the new life has to pass through a conscious death. The narrator, in order to overcome his inner struggle and reconcile tradition with modernity, has to be consciously aware of those two. And in order to find its belonging between a fragmented past and an unreal future, Beirut has to be conscious of its own reality. Dag Hammarskjold insists upon this conscious realization: “Committed to the future / Even if that only means ‘se préparer à bien mourir.’”

Now that the source of the struggle is located, it is time to delve into some of its manifestations. The narrator’s encounter with “the uncannily sharp image of [himself]” (D, 1) is displeasing to him. The friend appears to the narrator as a haunting shadow. He is described as a handsome, well attired man. “His bearing was upright … his authentic, Semitic nose was raised a little, arrogantly, like his head” (D, 3). There was no wrinkle on his face or neck. “Smooth-faced as a child, with a neck that filled the collar of his shirt, without bursting out of it. A face brimming with purity; a virginal smile” (D, 105). The narrator describes his friend’s appearance with minute details. He is amazed by his perfect looks. Yet, he is irritated by this overwhelmingly neat phantom. He can even see that his friend’s face was that “of a man who sleeps as soon as his head hits the pillow, with an easy conscience, pure white snow” (D, 109).

The narrator, far from appreciating such a perfect picture, is in fact repulsed by it. The excessive neatness and grandiose walk are somehow superficial to him. The narrator is annoyed by his friend’s fake smile. Later on, this white phantom slips back again into the narrative, confirming his influence on the narrator. “The smartest thing about him was his suit. A gray suit with a carefully knotted tie, and a white shirt” (D, 137).

In Unreal City, Tony Hanania displays a character very similar to Al Daif’s. Hanania’s narrator, a taxi driver, has to pick up a client from the cemetery. The man appears inside the car before the driver even pulls up the lock to let him in. There is no moisture on the glass beside his face. He doesn’t seem cold. He is dressed in a café-crème Safari summer suit


64

although it is wintertime. He suddenly disappears like an unfinished, fragmented dream. The two over-dressed, strange looking characters seem to belong to another place and time.

Till now, I have discussed the physical description of the friend and its effect on the narrator. A likely embellished, almost pathetic image, Nejmeh Square is the item I’d like to discuss next. Home of the parliament, Nejmeh Square is busy during the day and noisy by night with its crowded cafés and clubs. Nejmeh Square, a symmetrical, crafted area attracts hundred of tourists as well as Lebanese people every day. Yet, something peculiar in its over crafted décor seems to repulse the careful viewer. Neat and spotless, its streets are carefully lined up and its buildings displayed with exaction. Tabet in “La cité aux deux places” sees Nejmeh square as a place toiletté and over cleaned: a hyperspace.

“Emptied from all their occupants, its imposing buildings are transformed into spaces of representation where the picturesque only serves consuming purposes, as if in this mise en valeur of the place, lies its mise en mort.” Projecting ideal impressions and images, Nejmeh Square brings the same feeling of “fake” appearances that I have already discussed in the friend’s case. This spectacle, very similar to Guy Debord’s, demands a “passive acceptance” and says nothing more than “that which appears is good, that which is good appears.” Nejmeh Square stands in majestic firmness. The passersby cannot but be attracted by its magic. No traces of fatigue or decay can be depicted in its provocative façades. A perfect simulation of a modern environment Nejmeh Square is a virtual scene that promises what Berman calls “rhapsodies of Utopian yearning.” Just like Nevsky Prospect, Nejmeh Square displays a set of wide and straight streets. It is planned and designed so well that it serves now as a vortex of consumer economy and exchange.

Returning to the friend, he walked along the Hamra street pavement “…as if nothing had happened. It was as if the horrors that had taken place all over

Lebanon, and in Beirut in particular, for the last fifteen years were an artificial flood, specially constructed for a short-term purpose – an open air play, perhaps, or to shoot a film” (D, 2).

The narrator finds it strange that his friend walks in complete absence and denial of Beirut’s past. He wonders how such recollections of war and destruction can be easily wiped off from his memory. Beirut today aches too at the sight of Nejmeh Square which was once a stage for many battles and bloodshed. Here lies the schizophrenic nature of Beirut that I alluded to at the outset of this article. Beirut is torn between a past that cannot see the light again and a future that grew pre-maturely. Nejmeh square among many other places in Beirut saw the light in a hurried, active impulse to overcome its wounds before they were completely healed. The outcome of this rushed reconstruction is a nondescript land. Nejmeh square witnesses the passing of the days fluently, yearning to a promising future. The friend too is seen “holding a misbaha (worry beads) in both hands…For us, Arabs, time does not pass without a misbaha” (D, 3).

Leaving the past behind, Nejmeh square and the friend unconsciously give time a push. Beirut and the narrator wonder at such behavior but they know quite well that they created them.

“I had invented him! I had assembled his component parts from similar features common to many other people I know, features that also link them with myself. I had pulled them together to make him! (D, 3)

Beirut too, driven by the desire to become a modern city borrowed its ‘material’ from all over the world in order to create a city that encompasses all the attractions and modern attributes of the world. In one of its summer 2002 TV ads, the Ministry of Tourism displays a set of consequent pictures from famous cities of the world with their names in form of questions: “London?” “Paris?” “Hollywood?” “Rio?” “Tokyo?” The ad concludes with the line: “It’s all in Lebanon!” with all the previous pictures flashing quickly again. In this sense, Beirut wants to encompass all the world’s hallmark capitals and “features” as Al Daif calls


65

them. Beirut appears thus as a patchwork and a commodity ready to be consumed. Citing Debord’s words,

“Tourism, human circulation considered as consumption, a by-product of the circulation of commodities, is fundamentally nothing more than the leisure of going to see what has become banal.”

Beirut sees itself in a bright future that Barakat Building couldn’t even visualize. The friend foretells a beautiful future in the distance:

“What did he see now in the distance, when almost everyone was agreed that the war had probably ended…? Was he trying to catch a glimpse of the peace that was coming?” (D, 109)

The narrator’s friend, in his hauteur and impertinent walk has a vision that no one else can see. Nejmeh square as well projects an economic and touristic vision of Beirut. It is absorbed in this vision that it cast away all the past, like the friend walked “as if nothing had happened.” Indeed, his face was that: “of a man who sleeps as soon as his head hits the pillow … and who enjoys a clear conscience” (D, 111). The narrator and his friend belonged to the same political party. They planned demonstrations, were trained to use weapons. The narrator cannot believe how his friend’s conscience is so clear after all they have been through, and all that they did and witnessed. He adds:

“I was surprised by the fact that his neck had not a single trace of a drop of blood on it. It was absolutely straight, as if totally innocent…with the confidence of an upright man, and the unself-consciousness of an inanimate being” (D, 139).

“Smooth as the neck of a virgin and unblemished” was his neck. It was commonly known, the narrator claims that during his time a murderer’s neck is always bent. But his friend’s neck was not even slightly bent and had not a drop of blood on it. He seemed totally innocent from all crime, with a clear conscience. Totally innocent from all recollection of the war, Nejmeh square is a newborn city. It seems to be above all possible recollection of a dreadful past. It stands with a free or maybe a whitened conscience. Its memory made blank, it is a memory for forgetfulness as Mahmud Darwish calls it.

The narrator and Beirut are both “banalized” (to use Debord’s word). They are both forced to accept and believe in a simulated reality. The narrator is haunted by his friend’s attractive, angel-like shadow while Beirut is not allowed to unveil the secrets of the perfect crafted stucco of its modern areas. “The image has become the final form of commodity reification.” (Using Debord’s famous words again). The narrator and Beirut are obliged to be silent consumers of the images they are in struggle with.

Beirut city and the narrator, as I already argued, are caught in a dilemma in which many changes and currents take them back to the past, while at times, carry them in a leap to the future. Fighting amnesia, the narrator and Beirut confronted the future in its dual manifestation. They will take the opposite direction in the following part of this article, asserting thus the twofold dimension of the struggle.

As the narrator unfolds a new layer of his inner struggle, the reader goes a step further in the realization of the driving forces that roar in his unsettled mind. We see him now talking about the generation of the past or tradition. Having dwelled on modernity and the future, he goes back in his narrative to discuss his father’s reliance on weapons.

“My father would constantly insist that after his death we should put his revolver under the pillow he rested his head on, because that was the only thing he had faith in, even in his final agony. ‘Otherwise, it will be like burying me naked’” (D, 38).

The narrator’s father believes in weapons and their ends. He trusts the gun that could protect him and defend him. This same gun can also kill him. The gun is “clothing” to him, a protection and a shield from the outside. In fact, the idea of war becomes a shield to protect them. They hide behind it to justify their behavior, way of thinking or even lack of hope. Makdissi argues in Beirut Fragments that:


66

“… no matter how hard we try, we cannot shut out the war, even at the moments of relative quiet. We are locked into the situation, penetrated by it. We carry it in us and around with us.”

“Hope of Peace” is a monument built in 1995 near the Ministry of Defense in Beirut. Tanks, VTTs, guns and jeeps are cast in tons of concrete, symbolizing the burial of the war instruments. The monument calls to forget past wounds and look towards the future with hope. If we look critically at this monument, we would see the cannons of the tanks still facing the outside. The risk of shooting fire is always there as long as the cannon is still intact and aiming. In the same sense, the Lebanese people rushed to cover the exposed parts of their memory with patches of forgetfulness in an attempt to counter the psychological effects of ruin and devastation. Such an attempt is unsuccessful. The narrator’s father believes in war and its ways just as the Lebanese people nowadays leave the cannons of their memory aiming at the future. In The Little Mountain, Elias Khoury, in an attempt to change the destructive nature and use of the tank tells his friends: “ ‘I want a tank made of all colors….’ The guys brought over lots of colors and began to paint the tank.”

But a tank remains a tank whether it is colored or half buried. The tank becomes useless only when its cannon is broken. War in fact becomes the nightmare reality of everyday life. The sounds of bombs, cannons and aerial bombardments (manifested in the “Hope of Peace” monument) are far from being hushed nowadays. The echoes of these sounds still hover around in the Lebanese’ ears, whenever thunder strikes or lightening lights up the sky. We are, as Lebanese individuals, at home in this sometimes shocking, painful and peculiar tyranny of war. Emily Nasrallah handles the issue of memory in A House Not Her Own: Stories from Beirut:

“I was cooped up inside my house, walking through rooms empty save for the holes in the walls made by the flying sharpnels of continuous war. They were like slap marks on the face of memory.”

Fighting a struggle between war and peace, haunting memory and forgetfulness, the narrator and Beirut are caught in the dilemma. Ghada Samman portrays this clash in Beirut Nightmares: In one of her nightmares, a father brings his son a present on his birthday. The present is in a colorful box tied with a golden ribbon. The child opens it with joy. He finds inside a rifle. He is silent. His father asks him: ‘Don’t you like the rifle?’ ‘I wanted a bicycle so I could ride it on the rainbow’s highway, and discover the multicolored lanes, one color at a time.’ The roots of Beirut’s struggle were discussed in the first part. In the second, Nejmeh Square was used as an allegory for the total absence of memory. In the third part, the “Hope of Peace” monument reveals the other side of Beirut’s schizophrenic identity. Now, it is time to bring our discussion to the final stage: that of the conscious awareness of the above mentioned forces in Beirut’s struggle. The introduction laid great emphasis on the fact that the pathological remnants of the war’s memory must be explored and exposed. As already argued in the first part, the old generation wouldn’t admit the scientific fact that the earth is round and that it revolves around itself. The narrator tries to persuade them, but in vain: "But our ancestors were tied to the earth’s surface, shackled by its gravity, untroubled by any questions, with hearts that took no pleasure in reality” (D, 45). The narrator uses later a metaphor in which the struggle reaches its peak. He says:

“Take the pearls of the sea- the man that risks all to dive for them, can reach them and bring them back to land; but the man that stays on the surface of the water by the shore, comes back with only a hidden longing” (D, 46).

The narrator’s ancestors stayed at the surface of the water and suffered a “hidden longing”. The narrator here realizes his inner struggle, which reaches its climax with this metaphor. The old generation has to delve deeper in its beliefs and values. It has to reach the


67

pearls of knowledge to bring them to the shore. The narrator attains the nirvana of his dilemma with this image. He knows now what has to be done and how to do it. On another level, Beirut needs to experience such an awakening in order to be conscious of its struggle. B018 is an underground nightclub known for its unusual music and strange atmosphere. Near the port of Beirut, it was the quarantine zone for the port. Later on, it became home to war refugees and then, it was all destroyed. The site witnessed atrocious scenes of persecution and massacre. During this time the only architectural element visible from the road was a wall with a long, narrow hole through which militia snipers could shoot the passersby. To respect the memory of the place, especially the void that ruled over the site behind the wall, Bernard Khoury, the B018 architect developed an underground structure in 1998. This underground nightclub has sliding roof panels at ground level. When opening, the B018 roof releases sounds and light and extends its atmosphere to the outside. The distortion of the reflected images is exaggerated by the fragmentation of the mirror panels. Its closing is a voluntary gesture of disappearance, a strategy of recess. The gothic, sepulchral entry is a vertical murky stair. The seats, specially designed for the B018 nightclub, are made of steel and covered with dark-stained solid mahogany. They open to reveal velvet upholstery. Near the entrance is a long narrow window, positioned slightly lower than eye level to commemorate the snipers’ hole that once existed in the wall. Khoury’s architectural concept and execution of B018 constitute homage to the past. He admits that: “The danger in architecture here (in Lebanon) is that everyone acts as if nothing happened. History is simplified.” B018 refuses to participate in the amnesia that governs other Lebanese postwar reconstruction efforts. B018 is an invitation to dive deep into the wounded memory of war and bring about awareness. A part of Beirut, just like the old generation, acts as if nothing happened. In order to achieve reconciliation with its internal forces, Beirut needs to reach into its unconscious, go beneath the surface in order to be aware of its past and heal the scars it caused. Buried in the memory of forgetfulness, Beirut is still on the surface of its conscience and suffers a “hidden longing” for survival. B018, the shrine of the past contains holy recollections of history. The seats and tables are in the shape of coffins. When panels open up late at night the phantoms of the past reach the city along with the requiem tunes and distorted images of the past. The delirious dancers close the seats, which become flat, wooden-like surfaces to dance on. Dancing on the grave of the past; thus begins the demystification of the authority of war memory. Beirut’s memory has to emerge from the underground in order to assert its right to be a modern city. Elias Khoury in The Little Mountain emphasizes the importance of consciousness: “Consciousness is the opposite of death. We can abolish death only with consciousness. Then, we’ll be over with dying and start into real death.”

In our journey through the streets of Beirut and Al Daif’s Dear Mr. Kawabata, we met the constituents of their colliding forces. Consciousness was the key term in this study and the target towards which it aims. Being a flâneur was essential to achieve this end. Only the flâneur can read the city’s true contents behind the motley façades. Walter Benjamin defines the flâneur as “industrious” and “productive”. “His eyes open, his ears ready, searching for something entirely different from what the crowd gathers to see.”

Escaping what Debord calls the “monopoly of appearance” we re-discovered Beirut, dismissing thus the colored spots and fixed legend of its definite map. The postwar reading and re-writing of Beirut was only achieved through our stopping, questioning and remembering Beirut’s past and possible future. Beirut becomes thus a writerly, open-ended space. Flâneurs in the elegant streets of Beirut, we can see now that the rehabilitated buildings are based on the ruins of decayed columns. The remnants of the war are therefore used as pillars for the future. This article is an attempt to bring this faux pas into light. Beirut needs to recuperate its emotional power and impose itself in the world as a city rich in its long, varied memory.


68

References: Gibran, Kahlil.1998. The Prophet. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 4. Al Daif, Rachid. 1999. Dear Mr. Kawabata. London: Quartet Books,1. All subsequent quotations from Al Daif’s novel will have ‘D’, followed by the page number in-text, not in notes. Tabet, Jade. 2001. “La cité aux deux places.” Beyrouth: la brûlure des rêves. Paris: Autrement, 56. All quotations from Beyrouth: la brlûre des rêves are my own free translation. Rabbat, Nasser.1998. “The Interplay of History and Archeology in Beirut.” Projecting Beirut: Episodes in the Construction and Rreconstruction of Beirut City. Ed. Rowe, Peter and Hashim Sarkis. London: Prestel, 21. Barthes, Roland. 1973. Le Plaisir du Texte. Paris: Editions du seuil, 61. Abdel Fattah, Wael. 2002. “Shadows of a Past Life admist Beirut’s Ruins: how do we deal with a threatened memory?” Zawaya. March 2002. 1st, 4-5. All quotations from the newspaper article, originally in Arabic, are my own free translation. Abdel Fattah, 5. Bourke, Joseph. 1982. “Tragic Vision in Kawabata's The Master of Go.” Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature. No. 2.vol36. Al Daif does not name this person since “among us, people do not mention the names of their enemies when speaking about them.” (D, 2) To avoid confusion, I will refer to this person by the name ‘friend’. Hanania,Tony. 2000. Unreal City. London: Bloomsbury.Tabet, 56. Debord, Guy. 1998.The Society of The Spectacle. Trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith. Canada: Zone Books, entry 12 Berman, Marshall. 1999. All That Is Solid Melts into Air. New York: Verso, 224. Debord, Guy. 1998.The Society of The Spectacle. Trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith. Canada: Zone Books, entry 168. Makdissi, Jean Said. 1990. Beirut Fragments: a war memoir. New York: Persea Books, 213 Khoury, Elias. 1989. Little Mountain. Trans. Maria Tabet. Minneapolis: University of Minessota Press, 62. Nasralla, Emily. 1994. A House Not Her Own: stories from Beirut. New York: Gynergy Books, 102. Samman, Ghada. 1997. Beirut Nightmares. Trans. Nancy Roberts. London: Quartet Books. The Official B018 website available online at: www.b018.comKhoury, 62. Benjamin, Walter. 1999. The Arcades Project. U.S.A.: Harvard University Press, 453.


69

LANGUAGE MODERNIZATION IN KAZAKH: TERMINOLOGY ISSUES

Maira Yessimzhanova, Candidate of Philological Sciences KIMEP University/Kazakhstan

Abstract Current globalization processes, technological updates and advancements in various

fields of society leave different traces in languages. These changes are most noticeable in lexicon. One of the most important types of lexical changes is borrowings. To purify language from external influx a lot of substitutes have been introduced recently in the Kazakh language. This research aims to explore to what extent these new substitute words are understood by its speakers. Students participated in the study were asked to read short text from Kazakh Mass Media which included new substitutes for the previously existing borrowed words. They were asked to mark the words which they do not understand and suggest their possible meanings. The results demonstrate difficulties in understanding the new substitutes for the borrowed words.

Keywords: Borrowings, terms, neologisms, internationalisms Introduction

It is a natural phenomenon that languages change, develop, update their vocabulary, and undergo semantic changes. Languages, first of all, as means of communication are influenced by different changes in society. In recent times a lot of these alternations are caused by globalization processes which inevitably leave their traces in lexicon. Different aspects are discussed in the respective studies dedicated to new terms and words appearing as a result of special planning activities, and those appearing as a result of the work of individuals: interpreters, translators, etc. A subject for other investigations is a problem of ‘acceptability’ of the word, and successfulness of the word, in particular, whether the terms suggested by the agencies are used by the targeted audience. The history of terminology demonstrates different examples of ‘success’ cases of planned terminology changes, as well as, the cases of failure. Studies of factors which affect acceptability, factors responsible for using and not using the newly introduced terms bring practical implications for planning agencies. Another focus is whether there is a concern for the preferences of the targeted audience; and even more, in particular, “how compromises are reached between opposing views and interests” (Fishman, 1974). Although the golden recipe does not exist a lot of investigations are dedicated to find out more about a “good term” causing a range of studies to be engaged in critiques and assessment of newly appearing words. As Antia summarizes, the overall goal of critiques and appraisals of terminology projects is “to use discourse related to work on terminology as basis for reconstructing the theory underlying practice.” (2000). Current terminological explorations in Kazakh can be characterized as being mostly involved not in the fields outlined before, but discussing different issues regarding updating and modernization of its vocabulary: to purify language from external influx many substitutes have been introduced recently in the Kazakh language. According to the data of a representative of the Kazakhstani Terminology committee, since 1992 about 2500 new terms have been introduced in Kazakh, during 2000-2008 the 8 571 terms approved by the Terminology committee caused problems in translating practices. In general, during 1992-2008 189 000 words and word collocations were approved, including 155 000 professional


70

terms (31 volumes of the Kazakh-Russian and Russian-Kazakh dictionaries have been issued) (as cited in Amirkhamzin, n.d.). Research questions

The current study poses the following research questions: What is the overall comprehension of modern Kazakh, mostly the language of Mass Media, by Kazakhs including those whose first language is Kazakh? In particular, are there any words in modern Kazakh that the Kazakhs including those whose first language is Kazakh do not understand? What are those words? Data

The first set of data was collected from Internet lexicographical sources (Kazakh, Russian, and English), Mass Media texts and Internet sources to find particular words which have been borrowed and nativised in Kazakh, the other data were received from experimental tests to check comprehension of modern written Kazakh (written excerpts from Mass Media texts, bank contract of deposit) Method

Two experimental tests have been conducted to collect data for the language comprehension in 2013 at one of the local universities. The participants of the first experimental test were 15 students of a local university whose first language is Kazakh. They all finished Kazakh schools, and by the time of the experiment they all had taken, and few were taking Business Kazakh course. So, the first test targeted at respondents with Kazakh as their first language. Participants were asked to read the texts written in Kazakh: two short newspaper texts and a bank contract of deposit.

The participants of the second test were 40 students with different language educational background: some finished Kazakh while the others Russian schools. The participants of this group were instructed to read the same two short texts from Kazakh Mass Media texts. The students of both groups were asked to find out the words which are difficult to understand and suggest possible meaning from the context. The texts but not the lists of words were given to students intentionally so that they could construct meaning of unfamiliar words from the context. Background

Preliminary data received from lexicographical and other sources have been analyzed to identify substitutes, and to generally observe the processes associated with nativisation of the borrowed words. The data demonstrate that the words which have been nativised recently in Kazakh are mostly the words of Russian etymology and internationalisms. It should be mentioned that internationalisms as well as a number of other types of borrowings enter Kazakh through Russian, the latter plays intermediate role in this process; this can be explained by the lack or insufficient direct language contacts between English and Kazakh. The following words have been constructed in the language with the help of internal lexis: әуежай (cf: English and Russian airport and аэропорт), бағдарлама (cf: program and программа), қолтырауын (cf: crocodile, крокодил), иегер (cf: laureate and лауреат), керiк (cf: giraffe and жираф), дəрумен (cf: vitamin and витамин), жедел саты (cf: lift and лифт), кредит, несие (cf: credit and кредит), салым (cf: deposit and депозит), жаhандану, ғаламдану, жаhандастыру (cf: globalization and глобализация), the calqued ғаламтор (cf: Internet and Интернет), and аяқ добы (cf: football and футбол). Attempts to replace internationalisms are taken by language planners in many other languages as well. Zuckermann discussing camouflaged influence of English on a number of languages provided


71

examples of borrowings “nativised” in Modern Standard Chinese: basketball (an example of a calque introducing a new compound), radar, laser, neon, vitamin, hacker, and Internet. The Icelandic calqued electricity, formed a phonosemantic match for AIDS, and “rejuvenated” an old word to replace computer (Zuckermann, 2003; Sapir and Zuckermann, 2008). “Nativization” of the borrowed vocabulary is usually connected with language planners’ activities to purify language from external lexis.

One of the reasons for purification in Kazakh might be possible assumption or feeling that the language is too russified, despite the fact that many of the terms of wide usage coming from Russian are the words of English, Latin and other languages etymologies. It is interesting to note that no changes have been taken in Uzbek and Kyrgyz, for example, to replace such internationalisms as lift and football (cf: lift and futbolchi in Uzbek, футбол in Kyrgyz). The previous practices of terminology updates in Kazakh demonstrate different cases of whether the substitutes are in use now or not. Some terms which have been created before to replace Russian terms are claimed to be used now, such as: балмұздақ (Russian мороженое), аялдама (остановка), тоңазытқыш (холодильник), мұздатқыш (морозильник), шаңсорғыш (пылесос). Nevertheless, practice demonstrates, for example, that many nativized terms and new words approved tend to be used in written forms of Mass Media, while the spoken forms use both the Kazakh substitutes and the Russian equivalents as well, such as: the words қағидат and пайыз (cf: English and Russian principle, percent and принцип, процент). Some of the newly formed terms are used to refer to different notions, which cause troubles in communication: Kazakh қол добы is used to refer to volleyball and handball (cf: Russian волейбол and гандбол). In some cases the neologisms do not properly render the meaning of the borrowing: a new term сыбайлас жемқорлық was created to refer to corruption to replace Russian коррупция. Although the Kazakh equivalent is currently used in Mass Media, it conveys the meaning of “cooperative cupidity for bribes” which does not properly render the notion. Some other cases extend to productivity of introduced terms, when it is assumed that a substitute will be productive in forming collocations to develop a subsystem of related group of terms. For example, the Russian word социология (‘sociology’) was recently introduced as әлеуметтану, which, according to some opinions, completely corresponds to the respective notion. Nevertheless, the new term was not able to completely replace the borrowing, currently the two words (a new substitute and a Russian equivalent) are used for forming collocations: кәсіпкерлік социологиясы/ кәсіпкерлік әлеуметтануы, еңбек социологиясы/ eңбек әлеуметтануы, басқару социологиясы/ басқару әлеуметтануы. (cf: Russian социология предпринимателя, социология труда, социология управления). This case can be compared with the earlier practice of an attempt to replace the Russian borrowing революция (‘revolution’). Two words революция and төңкеріс were suggested for translation in the Kazakh-Russian and Russian-Kazakh dictionary by K. Bektayev. Революция means breaks in the society, while the alternative төңкеріс is change in power; the substitute did not acquire semantic shift by getting additional meaning, and, moreover, it did not become productive for forming collocations, the Russian equivalent is widely used instead: революция, төңкеріс → маржиналистік революция, революция мен эволюция, өнім революциясы, баға революциясы. Experimental tests

In the first test 6 students reported having no troubles in understanding the selected texts. 9 students reported different words difficult to understand, they included: тараптар (neologism, ‘sides’), үдеріс (neologism, ‘process’), көшбасшы (neologism, ‘leader’), жарна (neologism, ‘fee’), еңсерілмейтін күш (‘force majeure’), өкілетті/ уәкілетті (‘plenipotentiary’, ‘authorized’). The reported words are substitutes for internationalisms which have been coined recently and substitutes for Russian borrowings. In most cases students did not reconstruct the meanings of the words from the context.


72

In the second test the graduates of Kazakh language schools reported the following words to be difficult to understand (from the most frequent responses to the least): жаһандану (‘globalization’), үдеріс (‘process’), балама (‘alternative’), мүдде (‘interest’), атқарушы (‘executant’, ‘performer’), белсенділік (‘activeness’), ауқымдылық (‘масштабность’), etc. The “unclear” words included new substitutes for internationalisms and some coinages of Russian terms. The respondents’ comments indicate that they mostly were not successful in constructing the meanings from the context. As for the Kazakhs who finished Russian schools, the results of self-reported comprehension of the texts vary from 5-10 % up to 98 %. The results include the responses as “non-understandable” and “not clear” for the following words: жаһандану (‘globalization’), үдеріс (‘process’), балама (‘alternative’), мүдде (‘interest’), белсенділік (‘activeness’), тараптар (‘sides’), құқықтық (правовой), ауқымды (большой, масштабный), etc. A group of words indicated “not clear” included also the words which are not new in the language, for example: белсенділік, ауқымды. Only few responses suggested the meanings of the words from the context.

To sum up, the most common words reported “difficult to understand” were the internationalisms translated into Kazakh. The results have bigger variations in the group of the students educated in Russian, which ranged from some words reported “non-understandable” to overall poor comprehension of the texts. Conclusion

There is a tendency in the modern Kazakh LP to translate internationalisms into Kazakh to purify the language from external lexis. As it was found translated internationalisms tend to cause undesirable effects: some of them are not understood by the Kazakh speakers, this consequently can cause communication problem. Additionally, substitutions offered may have undesirable changes in meaning, or the terms may appear not to be productive for forming collocations. Translated borrowings can cause even more problems to those Kazakhs whose first language is Russian. References: Fishman, J. A. Language Planning and Language Planning Research: The state of the art. In J.A. Fishman (ed.) Advances in Language Planning. 1974 Antia, Bassey Edem. Terminology and Language Planning: an Alternative Framework of Practice and Discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing, 2000. Amirkhamzin, A. Nekotorye voprosy terminologii kazakhskogo yazyka. Retrived from http://www.neotech.kz/terminology_ru.html. n.d. Zuckermann, Ghil‘ad. Language Contact and Globalization: The camouflaged influence of English on the world’s languages—with special attention to Israeli (sic) and Mandarin. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Vol. 16, No. 2, July 2003. Yair Sapir and Ghil’ad Zuckermann. Icelandic: Phonosemantic Matching. In Globally Speaking: Motives for Adopting English Vocabulary in Other Languages. Edited by Judith Rosenhouse and Rotem Kowner (eds.) 19-43. Clevedon: Multiligual Matters. 2008 Bakir Koshkaruly (n.d.) Termin – sudbonosnyi vopros yazyka. Retrived from http://www.neotech.kz/termin_bakir_ru.html. n.d Bates L. Hoffer. Language Borrowing and the Indices of Adaptability and Receptivity Intercultural Communication Studies XIV: 2 2005 Bektayev, K. Большой казахско-русский и русско-казахский словарь. Nancy H. Hornberger. Authenticity and Unification in Quechua Language Planning Reprinted in Language, Culture and Curriculum, Vol. 11, Issue 3, 1998, pp 390-410. Purism vs. Compromise in Language Revitalization and Language Revival Author(s): Nancy Dorian Reviewed work(s):Source: Language in Society, Vol. 23, No. 4 (Dec., 1994), pp. 479-494. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4168553


73

PHILOSOPHY’S HUMANISTIC DYNAMISM

Ioannis Christodoulou, PhD, Lecturer in Philosophy University of Cyprus, Cyprus

Abstract During the long humanistic intellectual history, philosophers used to be the

forerunners of humanistic civilization. Nowadays, although remaining a famous discipline of Humanities, Philosophy seems not to be considered as the indubitable refuge of Humanism. In my opinion, the current academic politics does not coincide with the fulfilling of Philosophy’s alleged humanistic aspirations. On the one side, philosophers’ admirable academic achievements are not widely recognized. On the other side, academic philosophers themselves do not seem to be caring a lot about the public impact of their research. As a matter of fact, only a few academic philosophers made the cultural impact of Philosophy their constant academic concern. One of the most famous philosophers, who really made a subject out of their concern about the future of Philosophy, was Richard Rorty. Although I am not eager to accept Rorty’s pessimism regarding Philosophy’s role in expanding the territories of scientific knowledge, I am totally convinced that Rorty’s ideas concerning the cultural mission of Philosophy are well worth considering, provided that one has strong feelings about Philosophy’s place in human civilization. My own contribution rests on my analysis on the crisis of Philosophy’s strategic role in the leadership of Humanities. What I propose, is the reconsidering of the value of philosophical texts themselves, old and new ones. If Philosophy is to play a role in the rebirth of Humanities, philosophers may have to reconsider the value of the tradition of philosophical writing itself, instead of their obsession with ideas alone. We may have to re-establish the spontaneous productivity of philosophical expression, as the means of the re-entering of Philosophy in the path of humanistic excellence.

Keywords: Rorty, culture, text, future, philosophical tradition Introduction

The last fifteen years or so, a lot of research concerns several aspects of globalization. The consequences of globalized communication for the overall status of thought are serious enough. The civilization of knowledge - formatting for the sake of communication, seems to be irreversible, to the detriment of the satisfaction with reading and joyful knowledge. If this is so, then it is not surprising that Humanities are suffering the loss of their credibility as former well established disciplines, the task of which has always been the research on the meaningfulness of human life.

In this dangerous crossroad for Humanities, the role of Philosophy could be proved critical, provided that philosophers trust their only means to create meaning, that means verbal philosophical expression. Philosophical reason, without doubt, is a high-order operation of the human mind, which establishes by itself a reasonable order in the human world. Nevertheless, reason is mute without its wording. The philosophical wording is extremely innovative, throughout Philosophy’s long history. For this reason, I consider philosophical expression, whatever its endless forms, as a unique achievement of human civilization. This is not to be forgotten.

Without doubt, philosophical reasoning is useful in so many ways. Nowadays, for example, philosophers say intriguing things in the context of discussing contemporary issues. Nevertheless, philosophy’s strongest argument about the necessity of the existence of


74

philosophical thought, lies, in my opinion, in the philosophical tradition. Not because there are solutions for contemporary problems to be found in the past, but because it is through referring to the long tradition of philosophical writing that philosophy is going to regain its vital spontaneity. I

The spontaneity of the manifold philosophical verbiage conserved the philosophical tradition of centuries. The philosophical tradition, I think, is the only convincing anti-proposal to the contemporary anarchy of the civilizational meaning. What I am proposing, is to return to the history of Philosophy, in order to discover again and again the philosophical texts of the past and, together with the texts, to rediscover the spirit of referring to Philosophy as the main representative of a viable and diachronic civilization. In my opinion, the civilization of writing and studying philosophical texts, is comparable and equally vital for human beings as the civilization of art.

Contemporary philosophy is rich in exuberant suggestions. P. Kitcher, echoing J. Dewey’s views, says that this is what the role of philosophy really is: ‘…the philosopher’s first task is to recognize the appropriate questions that arise for his contemporaries.’1 What is the value of those suggestions, though, both from the point of view of the philosophical status of thought, and regarding their practical usefulness? In a word: who listens philosophers today? A spontaneous reply might be: ‘many people’. What I honestly mean, is this: who listens carefully to philosophers rather, than the politicians or the journalists? Most probably their colleagues, and, most importantly, the ones who have an ideological affiliation between each other. Nevertheless, Philosophy has all the credentials necessary for a scientific discipline, which is something that no one else has, of those uttering public speech on issues of an overall anthropological, moral, political and social interest.

R. Dworkin, a popular contemporary philosopher, who died recently, in one of his interviews in the BBC, three years ago, defended the view that everyone must be convinced about the legitimacy of gay marriages. All people, he said, have to accept the idea of those marriages. In addition, according to Dworkin, it is a responsibility of the State to convince everyone, because the State allegedly fights superstition.

Dworkin made another suggestion, as well. He defended the view that the University criteria for the acceptability of students, have to be academic as well as non-academic ones. Among the second ones, one has to enumerate the predisposition to study, and the eagerness of the students to find a work related to the subject matter of their studies. The journalist of the BBC, who had that conversation with Dworkin, was not convinced by the arguments of the eminent Professor of Philosophy. He rather made contrary suggestions.

As for Dworkin’s idea concerning University criteria, there is a critical question to be posed indeed. What could probably be the measure for someone’s predisposition to study? This is a philosophical question, which is to be answered by philosophical reasoning. Philosophers, in general, give arguments to defend their views. This is the kind of philosophy which prevails nowadays.

No doubt, philosophers have never stopped to revoke eminent ideas from Philosophy’s long past. Today, philosophers are particularly attracted to Kant, the philosophers of Pragmatism and Wittgenstein. They strive to find new ideas, in order to enter in a serious dialogue with those eminent philosophical figures. Nevertheless, the question that truly matters, is the following. What is the future of Philosophy going to be like? Several attempts have been made, in order for this question to be answered. For example, few years ago two collections of papers have been edited regarding the future of Philosophy. The first one is edited by Oliver Leeman, in 1998, and the second one by Brian

1 Philip Kitcher, ‘Philosophy inside out.’ Metaphilosophy 42 (3) (2011), 252.


75

Leiter, in 2004. The first volume is entitled “The future of Philosophy”, and the title of the second one is “The future for Philosophy”.2 Nevertheless, Richard Rorty, the great apostate of the analytic revolution, was the first analytic philosopher to pose the question regarding the future of Philosophy. When referring to the reception of his famous “The philosophy and the mirror of nature”, Rorty said: ‘Though disliked by most of my fellow philosophy professors, this book had enough success among non-philosophers to give me a self-confidence I had previously lacked.’3

Rorty’s iconoclastic ideas and the way he used to talk about them was enough for him to become extremely loved and extremely hated.4 According to Jonathan Rée: ‘…with the possible exception of Rorty himself, no one can have been surprised that Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature lost him the sympathy of nearly every pukka philosopher in the English-reading world.’

The philosophical establishment had stigmatized Rorty. Professional philosophers obey to the rules of the academic politics of ideas, and either they compromise with the dominant philosophical ideology, or they are taking the side of the rival. Regarding analytic philosophy, I am fond of Aaron Preston’s well founded view: …it is (and always has been) a mistake to regard analytic philosophy as a philosophical school, movement, or tradition, and that, instead, it is (and always has been) a purely social entity unified by what are called interactional memes, maintained at high frequency by conformist transmission. 5 J. Cottingham, also, writes as follows:

…we often seem determined to situate ourselves in a narrow anglophone world that is exclusively or very largely focused on the latest ‘cutting edge’ theories advanced by our contemporaries, either supposedly out of the blue, or through debate with other current theorists, or those of the recent past. 6

Most Philosophy professors are being concurred with the ideology of the academic politics of Philosophy together with the philosophy of the academic political ideology. If this is so, then it is not difficult to explain the disregarding of philosophical thought nowadays. Famous philosophers have their own faithful followers, but the public impact of their discourse is the same as that of other publicly speaking persons, like journalists, politicians or others. M. Bunge describes the current situation well enough:

Philosophy is far from being dead but, in my opinion, it is stagnant. In fact, few if any radically new and correct philosophical ideas, let alone systems, are being proposed. Gone are the days of exciting new and grand philosophical ideas that spilled over into other disciplines or even the public--for better or for worse. Today most philosophers teach, analyze, comment on, or embellish other scholars' ideas. Others play frivolous if ingenious academic games. …7

Honestly, I wonder if this is the best Philosophy can do, after 2.500 years of the philosophical tradition, and while it is being taught more than any other academic subject, both in Secondary Schools and Universities around the world. I am not saying that philosophers today seized to have either original ideas or convincing arguments. Besides, this

2 For a rather optimistic view regarding Philosophy’s future, if seen in close relation with science, see John Searle, ‘The Future of Philosophy.’ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 354 (1999), 2069 – 2080. 3 Richard Rorty, ‘Trotsky and the Wild Orchids.’ In Philosophy and Social Hope, (London: Penguin Books, 1992), 12. 4 Jonathan Rée, ‘Strenuous Unbelief.’ London Review of Books, 20 (20) (1998), 7. 5 Aaron Preston, ‘Conformism in Analytic Philosophy: On Shaping Philosophical Boundaries and Prejudices.’ The Monist, 88 (2) (2005), 292. 6 John Cottingham, ‘What is Humane Philosophy and Why is it at Risk?’ In Conceptions of Philosophy, edited by A.O’Hare, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 235. 7 Mario Bunge, ‘Philosophy in Crisis.’ op. cit., 29.


76

is something philosophers always did, starting from Socrates, who was extremely apt to the argumentative philosophizing.

Nevertheless, we would not have known anything, or almost, about Socrates, if it were not for Plato who wrote down Socrates’ dialogues, and made Socrates’, as well as his own philosophy, readable. Literally, Philosophy owes its birth to Plato, who is the genuine “lover of discourses”, which is an expression that is to be found in Plato’s dialogue entitled “Phaedrus”.

Plato was a kind of philosopher - philologist. The philosophical discourse gained its own value because of Plato and not thanks to Socrates, who did not seem to care about written philosophical word. No doubt, of course, Socrates’ stance towards written philosophical thought is to be respected for several reasons. Aristotle, as well, is well known for his treasuring compelling ideas of influential philosophers of the past. Aristotle’s texts, on the other hand, are to be admired for their technical adequacy and their meaningful clarity. Throughout the long history of Philosophy, the leading philosophers are competent readers, sincere admirers of the gifted philosophical writing and talented writers themselves. This is how Philosophy developed through its long history. The name of Philosophy became eminent thanks to the philosophers – philologists.

That philosophical tradition tends to be abandoned. Wittgenstein is indirectly responsible for the abandonment of the philological past of Philosophy. According to Ray Monk, whom I consider to be one of Wittgenstein’s most brilliant biographers: ‘He felt that even the people who understood in a detailed way his views on this, that and the other, had missed his attitude on these questions.’8 Wittgenstein’s indirect responsibility lies in the fact that he inspired the distrust of his followers to the traditional philosophical discourse. Ever since technical syllogisms, as well as logicality, have prevailed. Once again, as far as Wittgenstein is concerned, Ray Monk makes himself explicitly clear:

He didn't just have an argument against logicism. He hated logicism. He described logicism as a cancerous growth. He talks about the disastrous invasion of mathematics by logic. Why did he feel so strongly about that? Because it's a symptom of what he perceived to be a more general cultural degeneration. 9

In my opinion, this evolution is not to be considered as a fatal one or a development, let’s say, of the Cartesian spirit. Descartes himself, in his Discourse on Method, writes on the matter of logic:

When I was younger, I had studied, among the parts of philosophy, a little logic, and among those of mathematics, a bit of geometrical analysis and algebra—three arts or sciences that, it seemed, ought to contribute something to my plan. But in examining them, I noticed that, in the case of logic, its syllogisms and the greater part of its other lessons served more to explain to someone else the things one knows, or even, like the art of Lully, to speak without judgment concerning matters about which one is ignorant, than to learn them. 10

Consequently, in order to regain their spontaneity together with their originality, philosophers may have to renew their faith in philosophical discourse. J. Cottingham speaks about the sterility of analytic philosophical writing: ‘Many analytic philosophers have increasingly adopted this austere scientistic model of discourse, either subconsciously or deliberately cultivating a mode of writing such that any stamp of individuality is ruthlessly suppressed.’11 Hans – Johann Glock gives his own account of the writing attitudes of analytic philosophers:

8 Julian Baggini and Jeremy Stangroom, (eds). New British Philosophy, (London: Routledge, 2002), . 9 See Julian Baggini, op. cit., 12. 10 René Descartes, Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, translated by Donald A. Cress, (Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett, 1998), 10. 11 John Cottingham, ‘What is Humane Philosophy and Why is it at Risk?’ op. cit.,, 251.


77

Unfortunately, the speech of many contemporary analytic philosophers is as plain as a baroque church and as clear as mud. Indeed, many of them seem to regard this as an achievement, because it shows that their work does not suffer from the alleged superficiality of the logical positivists and ordinary language philosophy, both of which were marked by lucid prose.12 Therefore, it might be worth to give some thought to the rediscovering of the philological nature of the traditional philosophizing. The point is to utter an original philosophical speech, free from the load of guilt “granted” to philosophers by the philosophy of language. M. Bunge talks about this peculiar philosophical obsession with language:

No doubt, philosophers must be careful with words. But they share this responsibility with all other intellectuals, whether they be journalists or mathematicians, lawyers or demographers. Only poets can afford to write about lucky winds or drunken ships. Besides, it is one thing to write correctly and another to turn language into the central theme of philosophy--without, however, paying any attention to the experts, namely linguists.13

Without doubt, philosophically speaking, even though the language is guilty, one way or another, Philosophy has never been afraid of language.

In a word, philosophers should exercise, besides their academic one, cultural politics as well. Rorty makes a similar suggestion, in one of its recently published collections of texts, entitled: “Philosophy as cultural politics”:

I do not think that philosophy is ever going to be put on the secure path of science, nor that it is a good idea to try to put it there, I am content to see philosophy professors as practicing cultural politics… I am quite willing to give up the goal of getting things right, and to substitute that of enlarging our repertoire of individual and cultural self-descriptions. The point of philosophy, on this view, is not to find out what anything is “really” like, but to help us grow up – to make us happier, freer, and more flexible.14

To be sincere, I do not subscribe to Rorty’s disappointment with the research dimension of Philosophy. Besides, Philosophy’s recognition in the domain of scientific reasoning, makes Philosophy accountable when uttering alternative cultural proposals. Of course, I do not overemphasize philosophical scientism. I rather agree with P.M.S. Hacker, who makes some interesting remarks on the distinction between scientific and philosophical reasoning: ‘That philosophy is an a priori investigation does not mean that it is an a priori science. …No philosophical question can be answered by scientific enquiry, and no scientific discovery can be made by philosophical investigation.’15

The cultural mission of Philosophy would be best supported by the promotion of studying classical philosophical texts, and the production of new, equally weighty ones. Nowadays, a lot of philosophers teach philosophical texts by way of abstracting ideas. Somehow, we mutilate the texts, and what actually rests of them is certain propositions and arguments. Maurice Natanson has an interesting view on the nature of philosophical arguments:

Whatever the philosopher believes himself to be doing, there is immanent within his professional activity something antecedent to either a unilateral or a bilateral mode of procedure: there is a mono-lateral or proto-lateral activity. To translate simply: the

12 Hans – Johann Glock, What is Analytic Philosophy, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 171. 13 See Mario Bunge, ‘Philosophy in Crisis.’ op. cit., 29. For a thorough analysis of the linguistic turn, see P.M.S. Hacker, ‘Analytic Philosophy: Beyond the Linguistic Turn and Back Again.’ In The Analytic Turn: Analysis in Early Analytic Philosophy and Phenomenology edited by M. Beaney,. (London: Routledge, 2007), 125-141. 14 Richard Rorty, Philosophy as Cultural Politics, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 124. 15 P.M.S. Hacker ‘Philosophy: A Contribution not to Human Knowledge, but to Human Understanding.’ In The Nature of Philosophy, edited by Anthony O’Hear, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 142 - 143.


78

philosopher is trying to uncover something about himself. Philosophical activity is self-discovery. Philosophical reports, spoken or written, are self- reports first, arguments later.16

Nevertheless, philosophy students do not devote time to Philosophy Classics. On the contrary, they are accustomed to considering philosophical texts as containers of ideas and not as the result of laborious philosophical efforts, which include both philosophical intuition and the attempt of the philosophers – writers to produce the best possible textual result. When someone devotes himself to a dedicated reading of a philosophical text which deserves to be read, imitates in a way the writer of the text. We proceed, in a way, in the reviving of the text we read, provided that we face the text in its unity.

What I tried to show in this paper, is that Philosophy has reached, in its current state, a critical phase. Early in the twentieth century, Philosophy made its own self – critique with Wittgenstein. His shadow, ever since, is heavy enough. Academic Philosophy, after Wittgenstein, deteriorated Philosophy’s social presence as well as its cultural impact. Philosophy, for the most part, limits itself to the academic dialogue and exchange of ideas. Simultaneously, contemporary philosophers have appealing ideas regarding a variety of social matters. Robert Solomon tries to be fair with analytic philosophers. He uses the example of B. Russell:

If Bertrand Russell misrepresented the case against the Hegelians at Oxbridge in his day, he was, nevertheless, the very model of an engaged and popular philosopher, with a great deal to say to ordinary people about immensely important issues. There are so many excellent philosophers today who are using analysis (which means no more, ultimately, than trying to be clear) to address real problems. What a shame, then, that analytic philosophy has saddled itself with such a "thin" paradigm and reputation as obsession with logic and language, to the disdainful exclusion of everything else.17

Conclusion

Certainly, I am not proposing an overturning of Philosophy’s role and its according limitation to a cultural enterprise alone. I am defending the tradition of the philosophers – philologists. The philosophical discourse, which is an elaborated one, is a serious attainment of human civilization. As soon as philosophers regain their confidence in the philosophical text as a carrier of civilization, they are going to enrich their meditative experience and their work as a whole. The teaching of philosophical texts, as well, will become a means of deepening of the cultural spirit, which is going to be spread by philosophers to the overall social environment, to their students as well as to the followers of their philosophical action. References: Baggini, Julian and Stangroom, Jeremy (eds). New British Philosophy, London: Routledge, 2002. Bunge, Mario. ‘Philosophy in Crisis.’ Free Inquiry 21 (2001), 29. Cottingham, John. ‘What is Humane Philosophy and Why is it at Risk?’ In Conceptions of Philosophy, edited by A.O’Hare, 1 - 20. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Descartes, René. Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, translated by Donald A. Cress, Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett, 1998. Glock, Hans – Johann. What is Analytic Philosophy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

16 Maurice Natanson, ‘Rhetoric and Philosophical Argumentation.’ In Philosophical Style: An Anthology about the Writing and Reading of Philosophy, edited by Berel Lang, (Chicago: Nelson – Hall Publishers, 1980), 226. 17 Robert C. Salomon, The Joy of Philosophy: Thinking Thin Versus the Passionate Life, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 219.


79

Hacker, P.M.S.. ‘Analytic Philosophy: Beyond the Linguistic Turn and Back Again.’ In The Analytic Turn: Analysis in Early Analytic Philosophy and Phenomenology edited by M. Beaney, 125-141. London: Routledge, 2007. –––, ‘Philosophy: A Contribution not to Human Knowledge, but to Human Understanding.’ In The Nature of Philosophy, edited by Anthony O’Hear, 219 – 254. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Kitcher, Philip. ‘Philosophy inside out.’ Metaphilosophy 42 (3) (2011), 248 – 260. Natanson, Maurice. ‘Rhetoric and Philosophical Argumentation.’ In Philosophical Style: An Anthology about the Writing and Reading of Philosophy, edited by Berel Lang, 221 – 233. Chicago: Nelson – Hall Publishers, 1980. Preston, Aaron. ‘Conformism in Analytic Philosophy: On Shaping Philosophical Boundaries and Prejudices.’ The Monist, 88 (2) (2005), 292 -319. Rée, Jonathan. ‘Strenuous Unbelief.’ London Review of Books, 20 (20) (1998), 7-11. Rorty, Richard. ‘Trotsky and the Wild Orchids.’ In Philosophy and Social Hope, 3 – 20. London: Penguin Books, 1992. –––, Philosophy as Cultural Politics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Solomon, Robert C. The Joy of Philosophy: Thinking Thin Versus the Passionate Life, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Searle, John R. ‘The Future of Philosophy.’ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 354 (1999), 2069 – 2080.


80

THE GENERATIVE THEORY OF SOCIAL COHESION AND CIVIC INTEGRATION

Mauro Giardiello, PhD University of Roma Tre , Italy

Abstract The aim of this article is to develop a generative theory of social cohesion and civic

integration in order to show the negative or positive impact on the processes of social and civic dissolution (crisis of values, participation and tolerance), that characterize the local realities (communities, neighborhoods,...). In the paper a conceptual clarification of both social cohesion and civic integration is developed away from theoretical, macro and especially a-contextual positions, lacking in a thorough analysis of those generative or degenerative processes triggered by local stakeholders to produce social reality. In line with these critical reflections Lockwood’s and Erikson’s approaches have been applied as they have been considered the most fruitful for the study at a micro level and for a possible revision based on the application of the category of social generativity and public space.

Keywords: Social cohesion, civic integration, social generativity, public space Introduction

The crisis of the relationships in the contemporary society transforms the social bond in a scarce resource, problematic and sterile, unable to generate collective solidarity and inclusive community structures. The weakness of the bonds shows a gradual disintegration of the public social spaces that make coexistence difficult, mostly because the meeting places of communication, culture and democratic values are in crisis. The analysis of the fragmentation of the bonds of solidarity and of the crisis of meeting places allows to think about the concept of civic integration and social cohesion seizing an interesting link between them, despite the specific differences.

The aim of this article is to develop a generative theory of social cohesion and civic integration in order to show the negative (social and civic dissolution) or positive impact (values and relational resources) on the processes of social and civic dissolution (crisis of values, participation and tolerance), that characterize the local realities (communities, neighborhoods,...). In the paper a conceptual clarification of both social cohesion and civic integration is developed away from theoretical, macro and especially a-contextual positions, lacking in a thorough analysis of those generative or degenerative processes triggered by local stakeholders to produce social reality. In line with these critical reflections Lockwood’s and Erikson’s approaches on social cohesion and civic integration have been applied as they have been considered the most fruitful for the study at the micro level and for a possible revision based on the application of the category of social generativity and public space.

Lockwood (1999) analyzes the social cohesion (micro level) and the civic integration (macro level) as two distinct but interdependent levels that constitute the social integration. More specifically, social cohesion refers to the primary social relationships (family, relatives, neighborhood) and secondary (association), while the civic integration refers to the institutional order of a nation. The article proposes a re-reading of both the concept of social cohesion through the use of Erikson's theory of generativity and the concept of civic integration adapted in a micro view, redefined through the sociological literature about public space. In other words we show how the contradictions identified by Lockwood, social


81

dissolution (social cohesion) and civic corruption (civic integration), are both related to the quality of the generative process and public space as a process of mutual influence that is developed between the two realities. The social cohesion

The spread of the concept of social cohesion is a response both in terms of interpretation (the development of different theoretical models) and in terms of policies (national and supra-national) to the problems that emerged in the social, cultural and political ambit of global societies.

In particular, the interest in social cohesion is connected to the crisis of the social solidarity and social bonds in general. This is of concern within the contours of a political economic reality, where the old structures of social protection are in crisis or are unable to cope with a complex social framework within which new ethnic and infrageneration conflicts are generated due to migration and global processes. In this context the use of the concept of social cohesion is a response to the consequences of the structural changes produced in terms of keeping social ties of the society.

It is possible to identify two levels of analysis of the concept of social cohesion. The first relates to the study and investigation of macro - structural dimension and considers aspects such as the crisis of the welfare, the increase of inequalities, the transformation of the labor market in ways increasingly precarious as well as the themes of sharing a unique system of rules and values in an intercultural society presided over by the pluralism of values. The second level is meso or micro (the city, the neighborhood, the local community) and mainly reflects the maintenance and regeneration of primary social ties (related to the family, the neighborhood, groups of friends) and secondary (committees, associations, third sector) (Lockwood, 1999).

More specifically, it is interesting to note that in the sociological-academic tradition and in the policy ambit, the concept of social cohesion is considered in macro structural terms. In the rich sociological tradition Durkheim and Parsons have considered social cohesion, and more specifically the issue of the order, within the emergence of a general need for integration and cohesion that modern society produces due to the high process of social division of labor or functional differentiation.

To some extent, this tradition has survived in contemporary sociology, for example through the contribution of Gough and Olofsson (1999) whose analyses are developed mostly at the systemic level with a little attention to the empirical and micro reality. An important exception to this trend is Lokwood’s work (1999), who considers social cohesion one of the central aspects of social integration (the other is represented by civic integration).

It is worth noting how the in last two decades interesting contributions have been developed in order to define and operationalize the concept of social cohesion. In these works, as far as the concept of social cohesion is also extended to the micro reality, the theoretical premium is still focused on the macro-structural dimension. In the study by Chan et al (2006) social cohesion is defined as an attribute (not a process) of the inner society through its relational dimensions (vertical-horizontal, objective-subjective). In this perspective, the unit of analysis is represented by a nation geographically and politically defined (although you can extend the use of social cohesion to the city, district, neighborhood) (Chan et al. 2006 p. 291), where the State is the institutional level most appropriate in which to observe and study the social cohesion.

The tendency to thematize cohesion in terms macro rather than to redefine it according to the generative processes and products within the different local contexts is also evident in the contribution of Jansens et al. (2006). In this article, social cohesion is considered to be one of the key aspects of the new cosmopolitan public sphere within which operates an active citizenship that transcends national boundaries and especially looks less and less linked to the


82

role of places and territories in defining its formation (that arises from the interplay between formal and informal formation).

The spread of the concept of social cohesion is a response both in terms of interpretation (the development of different theoretical models) and in terms of policies (national and supra-national) to the problems that emerged in the social, cultural and political ambit of global societies.

This trend was also observed in the most recent studies on social cohesion, as it results from the documents of national governments and international organizations. More specifically, the Council of Europe (2005: 23) defines social cohesion “as the ability of a modern society to ensure long-term well-being of all its members, including equitable access to available resources, respect for human dignity with reference to diversity, personal and collective autonomy and responsible participation”. By analyzing this definition it is clear that cohesion is framed in a top-down perspective that focuses on the role of the state in creating a socio-political environment in which citizens can express themselves and enjoy the services and a better quality of life. In this context, it is completely neglected the generative processes that the different local realities and the different actors could activate and above all the consequences that this process could result in forming inclusive or exclusive cohesive processes.

The spread of the concept of social cohesion as a guiding concept in national and international policy is highlighted by agencies such as the World Bank. The work by Ritzen and Woolcock (2000) is indicative of a radical change of direction that took place as part of the explanation of the economic development where social, cultural and institutional factors are more and more important. According to their view the economic growth is more favored in those countries where there is greater social cohesion and in which more efficient institutions work. The focus of this approach is the size of the macro-policy based on a socio-institutional perspective where social cohesion is the means by which the economic growth of a state or a nation is realized. In this perspective it is clear that the endogenous dimension is neglected as a factor that could be an impediment or a generative element of the growth of the local community and its cohesion. The micro dimension of social cohesion

The macro structural dimension of social cohesion seems to disregard the analysis of phenomena related to social disorganization in a community or neighborhood, the crisis of social ties and especially the difficulty of activating generative social and civil processes. The micro view does not exclude that macro, given that between the two dimensions there is a circular process. In the context of this article, however, we believe that the density of primary and secondary social ties, and especially their generating capacity, located in a given area, is one of the central aspects in order to understand the formation and rooting of social cohesion. It should be noted that in the sociological literature there has been a copious stream of studies and research that have been characterized by the attention given to the relationship between the social quality of a neighborhood or community, and the emergence of phenomena like deviance and marginality. In this field, we can certainly count the pioneering studies of the Chicago School of sociology that have thematized the concept of socio-cultural risk for the environment as the seat of the crisis of social ties and processes of spatial identification. More recently, we recall the studies that have addressed the relationship between social cohesion in the community and district with a particular attention to the problems of crime and urban safety.

These studies are important because they focus their analysis on specific aspects of the crisis of social cohesion (the emergence of deviance), neglecting not only a conceptual clarification of the term but especially evading the deepening of the mechanisms that govern the formation of social cohesion within a specific local context.


83

In line with these critical reflections Lockwood’s approach on social cohesion has been taken into account as it has been considered to be fruitful for the study at a micro level and for a possible revision based on the application of the category of the social generativity.

Lockwood (1999) analyzes the social cohesion as one of two distinct levels that constitute the social integration. In this perspective, the social cohesion (versus the social dissolution) is configured as the micro dimension of the social relations and consists of the primary and secondary relationships that insist within a local community. The second level of social integration is the civic integration (civic corruption) and refers to the universality of the rules and rights that empower the procedures and the good practice of the institutional and economic actors who operate at the macro level within a nation. It is important, in our opinion, to note that for Lockwood the social integration (constituted by cohesion and civic integration) is opposed to the systemic one. In his perspective the social cohesion, being the micro aspect of the social integration, does not affect the society as a system but all of those actors who operate within the primary and secondary relations constitutive of the community. Here the theorized concept of social cohesion refers not only to the specific practices of social actors (family, voluntary associations), but especially the fruitful relationship that can be established between primary (family and networks of relatives and friends) and secondary socialization (associations and networks, bonds of trust between them.) This is a reading that focuses on the possibility that kinship, friends and neighbors networks possess to extend “to a more general altruism, that is, trust in and willingness to help” (Lockwood, 1999: 69). The emergent quality of social integration and of its distinct levels allows us not only to identify different processes and actors both in social cohesion and at the level of civic integration (State and market), but also to identify the mutual conditioning that develops between them despite their independent nature. Lockwood (1999: 65) argues that “although social cohesion and civic integration are analytically and empirically distinguishable (as in the case of social versus system integration), it is also the case that civic corruption beyond a certain point will affect social cohesion, just as a widespread social dissolution will threaten civic integration”. From our point of view it seems appropriate to emphasize that this theoretical approach refers to at least two ideas central to the development of the overall economy of the paper.

The first idea concerns the fact that only when the two levels of social integration are mutually reinforcing the conditions for the development of a good society are realized. In the opposite case we have the occurrence of pathological asynchronies that affect the process of social integration. More specifically two asynchronic directions are detected: on one hand the social cohesion by building “bonding” social ties determines a self-referential and inclusive process compared to the more general process of civic integration (civil and moral citizenship assembly); on the other part, the emergence of a context in which it is observed, despite the presence of a social cohesion characterized by bonding and bridging ties, a high level of civic corruption.

The second point shows that in order to achieve social integration, the social cohesion has to be synchronic to civic integration, therefore it is essential to identify the generative mechanisms operating not only within the two respective levels but also to understand how the development of a possible connection between the different levels is created.

In Lockwood’s theory there is the presence of a generative process function of the society when social cohesion is strengthened and primary and secondary ties are kept and fed, but also when it operates in inter-action with the other form of integration, than that civic. Nevertheless it is clear the absence in the model of Lockwood of an efficient analysis capable to understand the complex dynamics of generativity and its effective role in building social cohesion. Because of this theoretical limit here it is privileged the perspective of the social generativity, necessary to understand the genesis of the formation process of the social cohesion. The focus is centered, in this part of the paper, on the knowledge of the process of building the relational structures and the reciprocity bonds in that they allow us to observe not


84

so much and not only the quantity of links but above all, their quality and as well as to affirm not only the presence of a link, but to reflect on how the quality of this bond conditions the social cohesion of the community. The generativity in the social perspective

The term of generativity is part of the articulated and innovative psychosocial or psychological theory developed by Erikson in order to understand the intricate dialectic that is created between the development of the self and the society. Erikson considers generativity as a psychological quality that the adult individual should acquire within an evolutionary path of progressive psychosocial maturation that leads him to take responsibility for the welfare of his children and of the future generations. Despite Erikson starts from a perspective of individual development and identifies generativity as a typical characteristic of the adult, he can definitely be counted among the first who analyzed the social dimension of generativity. Erikson’s effort to develop the socio-psychological model of individual development can be seen not only in the theory of the cycles of life but also in the central role it assumes in the understanding and explanation of the functioning of society. In the theory of human development Erikson differentiates the individual's life cycle into eight stages each characterized by a psychosocial polarity central to the growth of the man. Generativity, considered as the psychological center of the seventh stage (generativity versus stagnation), appears as a psychological journey that the person is faced with solving the evolutionary crisis in order to acquire a balanced development of the ego (Erikson, 1950). This is partly true because each stage is the result of a relational process that is established with the external reality interpersonal, and generational. It is interesting to note that the model of the cycle of human development is interwoven with that generational setting up a social theory of change in the society. More specifically, Erikson (1964: 114) argues that “for man’s psychosocial survival is safeguarded only by vital virtue which develop in the interplay of successive and overlapping generations, living together in organized settings. Here, living together means more than incidental proximity. It means that the individual’s life-stages are <interliving> cogwheeling with the stages of others which move him along as he move them”. In this context it is obvious the sociological characterization of generativity as it binds different generations ensuring the exchange and transmission so as to promote the development of the society within a dynamic balance between change and conservation. The social aspect of the life cycle is particularly evident in the seventh stage when the generating capacity is stated on the basis of the passing of an ego-centered dimension and the affirmation of the virtue of care that “is of interest for what is been generated by love, necessity or by accident and that goes beyond adherence to an irrevocable ambivalent obligation” (Erikson, 1968: 72). Generativity so conceived provides itself a balance between the desire for self-fulfillment and a striving for the society, manifested through the care, commitment, action and responsibility towards the other. It is a generative process that involves the activation of two contrasting trends defined by Bakan (1966) agency and communion showing the interdependent linkage between the individual and the context. In this tension to come out of himself it is easy to see that the generativity can move inter-subjective and collective spaces as it involves not only the growth and well-being of their children but the creation of new things, ideas and relationships. The care and responsibility appear as energies that drive the generative action of the individual beyond areas exclusively intersubjective to join social spaces characterized by a tension addressed to here but also projected to the welfare of future generations. The link between individual and collective dimensions of the process of generativity is further developed in the book The Truth of Ghandhi (Erikson, 1969) in which generativity, by promoting the virtue of care leads to a new dimension: social responsibility. In this case generativity expands its scope by passing an expression of care exercised in respect of their children and future generations to understand a perspective that generates the whole human race. It should be


85

noted that in this work it is not only clarified the deep plot that takes place between the psychological and social quality of generativity but it is also indirectly highlighted the problematic nature of the process of generativity. If in the model of the life cycle the relationship with the social reality is processed both on the generative maturity of the subject and within the bankruptcy forms that invest generativity, in Gandhi's Truth it emerges not so much the profile of the failure of generativity as its ambiguous nature. The contribution offered by both analytical perspectives is very interesting to evaluate how it is not only the action generativity, expressed by the virtue of care towards children and future generations, to allow to penetrate and illuminate the inextricable interplay between action and structure but also in parallel its antinomies: stagnation, self-preoccupation and pseudospecies. The first two are the expressions of the failure of generativity in the evolution of the life cycle and have an impact on the overall well being of the community. More specifically the stagnation expresses the subject's inability to take care of later generations not investing in the transmission of values and resources for the growth of future generations. The self preoccupation expresses a pathological self-centering of the subject, concerned about his own future and not able to invest resources for the future generations. At the social level it is observed a weakening of the process of generativity in the exchange between the generations and the spread of forms of generativity bankruptcy. The last antinomy refers not so much to its bankruptcy forms as to the ambiguous nature of the concept in relation to the social reality. Kai Erikson (2004) argues that the concept of generativity contains a certain degree of ambiguity since it can be referred to his own children, younger members of the community or the species itself. In accordance with this tripartite division very often the generative process is moved from a social perspective and is regulated by a mechanism discriminatory rather than universal. The most of people are generative at least to one level as it does not always happen that those who are concerned with the care of their child or future generation of their community are equally generative in relation to other social groups. It is obvious that generativity, understood as the intergenerational transmission of what is of value, cannot be achieved in all the three levels because often generativity invests mainly in the first two domains by transforming them into familism, nationalism or localism. People move in these defensive circles mainly to protect themselves, their children and their own group for which the process has a double meaning: positive for his own group and negative for those who do not belong to it. In this regard, Erikson (1984: 481-482) speaks of a pseudospeciation governed by the generativity referring to the fact that “mankind, while one species, has divided itself throughout its history into various groupings that permit their members, at decisive times, to consider themselves, more or less consciously or explicitly, the only true human species, and all others as less human”. Here it lurks the fundamental problem of tribal identity construction based on a process of identification with specific subgroups rather than the formation of an identity defined by Erikson species-waide based on a universal ethos. It is clear that to get out of a state of ambiguity generativity has to be interpreted as a field of action that expands or reduces, not only because of the psychological quality of the subject but also according to the value structure, to the quality of relationships in the group, to the civic and institutional structure of a community. The generativity theory of social cohesion

Generativity is an expression not only of intrapsychic dynamics or evolutionary crisis but also of the processes of social nature. Despite the development of the concept of generativity constantly calls the social level it is not possible to say, as de St. Aubin et al. (2004: 267) argue, that “it is not precisely clear how generativity at the individual level relates to generativity at more collective levels … Rather than focus on the individual, we need start looking for generativity in locations not typically investigated by psychologists, such as written laws, the tacit social contract, rituals, cultural customs, institutional mission


86

statements, and social policy”. In this sense we can say that the theory of generativity should be embedding in the social structure to take an interpretative model of the dynamics of societies. More specifically generativity is presented as a disembedding process by providing a psychological view of man's social existence, in fact it captures the social aspects as a projection of the individual dynamics. The theory of social cohesion by Lockwood, on the contrary, emphasizes the importance of relational structures describing them as embedding in structure but neglecting a deepening of the generative mechanisms aimed at the formation of relational aspect as responsible for the quality rather than for the structure of the social cohesion of a community. In this sense we can say that on one hand the generative perspective allows us to analyze social cohesion as a dynamic process (evolutive and involutive, inclusive and exclusive) while on the other the concept of social cohesion allows us to highlight the ability of the generativity to interconnect the individual dimension within the social context and above all to make understandable the generative dynamics of the social structure. It is outlined a generative theory of social cohesion that analyzes the nature sometimes rhetoric and uncritical of social cohesion, often presented as synonymous of good company. This interpretation is proposed by the dominant mainstream in the absence of a thorough knowledge of the processes underlying the social relationships and group dynamics. The conceptualization of the generative process has clearly showed how its character has any impact on the complex and ambiguous nature of social relationships. In detail the generative process shows that it is not enough to be part of a network in order to feel belonging to a cohesive reality as the quality of the networks (bonding or bridging) and the dynamics of a group or community (universal of specieshood or pseudospeciation) are closely related to the quality of the generative process. In this sense it seems limiting to say that social cohesion represents the product of the primary and secondary relations arising from the good practices of the actors if it is not known what kind of generative process they are able to implement and activate. For this reason, it is necessary to trace how the concept of generativity is structured in a social sense, in order to better understanding the nature of social cohesion. In detail social generativity as a process can be distinguished into three mechanisms that occur in unison when the psychological and social conditions are realized and make an action generative. In this perspective it is possible to argue that an action to be generative must be characterized as creative, care/responsibility oriented, able to promote autonomy. In this sense generativity not only creates objects, ideas and relationships but it cares what has been created and do not possess it. If generativity involves the creation of new bonds also determines their care, revitalizing and strengthening them constantly. However in order to be creative, productive and responsible, social generativity must have the ability to develop autonomy in what it has created. More specifically generativity is << to let go of >> what you create (which implies trust in others and freedom), despite the strong tension to care. These three mechanisms can be observed in the different actors and institutions. We can assert that a municipality, a social cooperative or association can develop social relations of generative or degenerative nature. If we consider the foundational social relationship of social cohesion it is evident that it must not only be created, generated, but in order to survive it must be cared. However for this relationship to be generative it must create new relational bridges with new actors and new and different relationships. When the process of generativity is structured with all the three components then it can be considered complete and therefore capable of forming the social reality in inclusive terms. It is obvious that if we apply the construct of social generativity within Lookwood’s perspective, we are able to understand not only how to create the bonds but also their quality. Seconded the three aspects of the process of generativity are connected it is possible to understand if it is a social cohesion inclusive, exclusive or subject to dissolution. In general it can reasonably be argued that in the absence of the three mechanisms identified bankruptcy forms of generativity can be observed that assume the character of stagnation or of self preoccupation. These forms lead to a dissolution of social cohesion


87

resulting in a weakening of social ties due to a retreat from the social field by the different actors that make up a community. This forms the basis of the formation of the phenomenon of privatism and individualism in which it is very difficult to find pro social modes, relational structures based on reciprocity and cohesive communities. By looking at the two distinct levels identified by Lockwood as paramount to the formation of social cohesion we can see as the presence of a weak generative process marked by stagnation or self preocupation develops family ties mostly self-referential and weak, null relational secondary structures or without pro sociality. It should be emphasized, however, that there is not only a problem of weak social ties but also of excessive closure. In the first case, the dissolution could be set in the light of the theory of generative cohesion as the product of the failure of the generative process In the second case the cohesion becomes a problem in itself (Jensen, 1988) since the generative process governed by an introversion pseudospeciation lives within the family or group membership anticipating a tribal social cohesion. This implies that the concept of social cohesion is characterized by a certain degree of ambiguity (social cohesion also has a dark side). Paradoxically, despite the generative process is made of all the three components, if it is not combined with a civic structure made of values, spaces and actors; the implications that it has on social cohesion are in the name of discrimination rather than of universal integration. Civic integration and public space

The analysis of public space and its crisis represents an important field of investigation and knowledge of the level of civic integration of a community, as well as its democratic seal. The concept of public space has to be considered as a socio-spatial prerequisite from which you can generate the civic integration as it refers to a set of aspects (access, community life, education dimension of civic participation, conflict and negotiation between the diversity) essential for the social integration of a community. It should be noted, however, that the concept of public space draws back to a complex tradition of philosophical studies, political science, sociology and urban planning in which you can identify a general definition of public space (associated with more than one dimension of the public sphere) and another more closely linked not only to the spatial aspects but especially to the most micro of everyday life. In the first theoretical framework we can certainly count the contribution of Habermas (1996) for which the public space refers to an idea of “third space” where you build the premise of the dialogue between pluralities and by means of which the public sphere is formed or, more appropriately, the area of public opinion or the space where public opinions are formed. In particular, “the public sphere is an intermediate structure between the political system, on one hand, the private spheres of the life-world and functionally specialized systems on the other”. On the side of a political philosophy the major contribution is the work of Arendt (1958). For Arendt, the public realm is “the being in common”, where a plurality of entities become visible and act confronting, and at the same time, avoiding “to fall on each other”. It is a public space that is built on the visibility, the discourse and the action and produces a public (political) sphere with an emphasis on the relationship as a process that combines the difference. Although Arendt gives to the concept of public space a more concrete meaning than that developed by Habermas, the analysis of the spatial dimension, however, remains marginal in relation to the size mainly meso and micro.

In the second perspective, the public space is associated to the territorial dimension from whichl relations, dialogue and participation spring. Sennett, in some respects, is among the leaders that to a greater extent addresses the role of space as a function of sociality. The public space is the place for Sennett’s anonymity and impersonality opposed to the intimate reality (1976). The crisis of public space is represented by the fear of impersonality, of the unknown that “promotes fantasy of collective life of a limited nature” in which “the image of the identity of the <we> becomes more and more selective: it only includes neighborhood,


88

colleagues, family. It becomes difficult to identify with people who do not know”. The only reality possible becomes, therefore, that intimate.

Despite Sennett attributes more importance to the physical space as a central element of public space, however, the places of social proximity are neglected. The focus on public space as a place for socializing from which the confidence and security come is due to Jacobs (1961). Following her perspective, the public spaces “are the most important public places of a city and its most vital organs”. These are public spaces that when are able to keep the values and the social resources can contribute to the formation of a collective sense and trust. Within this perspective a field of research is the role that the spatial organization plays in generating social capital and civic sense. It is thanked to the work of Jacobs the considerations on the generative role of public space in the virtue of interaction and trust that are developed between people of the same neighborhood and strangers. In line with this approach, we review the concept of macro civic integration by Lockwood adapting it in a micro optical and connecting it to the public space. We propose a distinction between cohesion and public space that does not imply a separation between two incommunicable domains but it especially considers the generative relationship central to the formation of inclusive communities. The starting point is the theoretical assumption of a minimalist conception of cohesion defined on the basis of the relationships, different from the concept of civic integration as expression of civic values. Here the civic integration is the place of tolerance, conceived as embedding in the social structure. It is less tied to Lockwood’s model defined on the basis of the institutional integrity of the macro-level social citizenship. It is clear that the adopted concept of integration invokes a spatially specific statement that plays a key role in understanding both the cohesion and civic integration at the micro level. The space and its morphology influences and cooperates in the formation of social ties and civic integration. In this case the public space taking shape of a place of universal access, social heterogeneity and diversity produces the conditions for a learning center located in the regeneration process of civic integration at the local level. It is easy to note, by following Lockwood, that to have social integration, it is necessary that the social cohesion is related, combined, to the civic integration. Undoubtedly, from our point of view, the link between these two dimensions is formed by the process of generativity that regulates the transformation and upgrading of bridging ties rather than just those bonding. More specifically, the social cohesion by finding its place mainly in space more parochial (family, relatives, neighbors) than in the public realm (public space) (Lofland, 1998), in order to to be inclusive must be able to meet the structural condition in which the process of generativity widens and it is transformed from a tribal dimension to another universal. It is clear that social cohesion in the absence of public space becomes an expression of micro-fiefdoms ruled by tribal identity and the pseudospeciation, while the public space, if not supported by the relational dimension, trust and cooperation becomes an empty shell, a space dominated by regulatory procedures and formal rules. Conclusion

Social cohesion and civic integration are two key parameters useful to understand the crisis of the social dissolution experienced by many local realities. As a consequence it is necessary to abandon an idea of social cohesion as a social <state of affair>, often conceptualized as a multidimensional construct that encompasses different aspects not easily associated in a single definition. The sociological literature often confuses the relational structures with the civic dimension that instead belongs to civic integration. In this case, the process of disintegration of realities must be analyzed from two perspectives: from one hand the relations that constitute the fundamental basis of cohesion and on the other the structure of values which instead is the civic integration. This implies another important step namely the need to consider the two embedding concepts in the reality. This means that the places have a central role in facilitating the processes of cohesion and civic integration. Assuming a close


89

link between social reality and space it is obvious that cohesion and civic integration are the expression of different spatial areas. We can definitely say that social cohesion has to be considered a concept <spatially specific> for the parochial dimension while civic integration refers to the public realm. The distinction between cohesion and civic integration as two different areas, not only puts greater attention to the consequences that the transformations of the spatial structure produces relatively to the break-up of social and civic competences, but also leads to consider the crisis of local realities as the product of asynchronies that arise between cohesion and civic integration. In this perspective, the social integration of a community depends on both the level of connection that develops between social cohesion and civic integration and the generative processes operating not only within the two respective fields but also how they affect the quality of their connection. The conceptualization of the generative process shows that it is not enough to be inserted into a network in order to feel belonging to a cohesive reality, but even that it is not enough to have a high level of cohesion to define a community civically integrated. This implies the need to analyze the generativity of social cohesion in relation to the values given that cohesion and generativity, in the absence of public spaces, become synonimous of tribal identities. References: Arendt, Hannah. The Human condition. Chicago: University Chicago, 1958. Bakan, David. The Duality of Human Existence: Isolation and Communion in Western Man, Chan, Joseph, Ho-Pong, To and Elaine Chan. Reconsidering Social Cohesion: Developing a Definition and Analytical Framework from Empirical Research. Social Indicator Research, 75: Council of Europe. Methodological Guide. Concerted Development of Social Cohesion Indicators, Council of Europe Publishing, 2005.de St. Aubin, Ed, McAdams, Dan P. and Tae-Chang Kim. The Generativity Society, Washington: American Psychological Association, Erikson, Eric. Childwood and Society, New York: Norton, 1950. Erikson, Eric. Insight and Responsibility: Lectures on the Ethical Implications of Psychoanalyic Insight, New York: Norton, 1964. Erikson, Eric. Identity: Youth and Crisis, Oxford: Norton, 1968. Erikson, Eric. Gandhi’s Truth. New York: Norton, 1969. Erikson, Eric. Reflections on Ethos and War, The Yale Review,73, 481-486, 1984. Erikson, Kai. Reflections on Generativity and Society: A Sociologist’s Perspective. In de St. Aubin, Ed, McAdams, Dan P. and Tae-Chang Kim (Eds). The Generativity Society, Washington: American Psychological Association, 51-61, 2004. Gough, Ian and Gunnar Olofsson. Capitalism and Social Cohesion, New York: Palgrave, 1999. Habermas, Jürgen. Fatti e Norme. Milano: Guerini Associati, 1996. Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House, 1961. Jansen, Theo, Chioncel, Nicoleta and Hetty Dekkers. Social Cohesion and Integration: Learning Active Citizenship. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 27, 189-205, 2006. Lofland, Lyn H. The Public Realm, New York: De Gruyter, 1998. Lockwood, David. Civic Integration and Social Cohesion. In Gough I. and Olofsson G. (eds.), Capitalism and Social Cohesion, 63-84, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1999. Ritzen, Jo and M. Woolcock. Social Cohesion, Public Policy and Economic Growth: Implications for Countries in Transition, Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics Sennett, Richard. The Fall of Public Man. London: Norton, 1976.


90

URBAN DESIGN AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: A CASE OF MAKOKO AREA OF LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

Olumuyiwa O Ajayi, MSc. Faith O. Oviasogie, MSc. Dominic E. Azuh, PhD Moses M. Duruji, PhD

Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

Today, cities in developing countries enmeshed in extreme poverty and fail to create the jobs necessary for development. The share of the population living in urban areas is rising inevitably. According to the report of the Global Urban Observatory (2003), urban poverty in developing countries is typically concentrated in slums and other informal settlements. The bulk of the urban poor in Africa as exemplified by the Nigerian situation are living in extremely deprived conditions and indecent housing with insufficient physical amenities like water supply, sanitation, sewerage, drainage, community centres, health care, nutrition, preschool and non-formal education. The UNDP Human Development Report 2004 ranks Nigeria as the 30th poorest country in the world, as it is now, according to the Global Competitive Index (GCI, 2013-2014), Nigeria is the 120th poorest country among 148 countries in the world. Currently about 65- 70% of the population lives below the poverty line, half of which probably lives on less than half a dollar per day and precarious situation (UNDP, 2004). The issue of poverty in Nigeria especially in the urban areas as exemplified by the situation in Lagos being the commercial nerve of the country has been aggravated by the present trend of rural urban migration coupled with the inability of the urban areas to create the jobs necessary for development. Currently Lagos reflects the embodiment of the contemporary decay of urban life as evident in the poor standard of living, congested apartments, degraded environment, crime, among others. It is against this background that this paper seeks to investigate the interplay between urban design and sustainable development in Makoko due to its strategic location in Lagos metropolis.

Keywords: Urban Design, slums, sustainable development, informal settlement, Makoko-Lagos, Nigeria Introduction

Whenever the Lagos State government moves to showcase the beauty of the city, it focuses on the beautifully constructed roads of Ikoyi and Victoria Island, as well as the imposing buildings in the industrial areas of the state. But in reality, Lagos is more than the beautiful roads of Ikoyi, or the intimidating skyscrapers found in some parts of the Island. Many areas of Lagos are still bereft of infrastructures that make life easy for the dwellers. Despite the efforts of the state government to transform the city into one with aesthetic appeal, there are still many slums with little government presence. One of those is Makoko in Yaba local government area. Makoko appears to have been neglected by the Lagos State government. Makoko is a slum neighbourhood established in the 18th century as a fishing village and its population is considered to be 100,000. A large part of the area rests in structures constructed on stilts above the Lagos Lagoon (BBC 2010).


91

Makoko represents an irony in a mega city like Lagos. It is a community where many residents live on the lagoon belt in a repulsive and unhygienic condition. Somehow, they have continued to weather the storm. Photographs and aerial view show the resilience of the inhabitants. Makoko is composed of an exotic breed striving to live a meaningful life despite all odds. Even despite the dire circumstances, culture is seen in confluence with commerce (BBC, 2010).

Before Nigeria’s independence, the colonial government at that time adopted the Garden City approach in the planting of European Quarters, later GRAs (Government Reserved Areas), with spacious, lush greenery. The Government Residential Areas became standard features of many Nigerian cities. In Lagos, this gave credence to such places as Ikoyi and Ikeja GRA. This approach was unfortunately not carried through to the ‘African quarters’ like Ebute Metta. At post-independence, it was only the former European Quarters or GRAs that were planned. Perhaps due to increased migration, various areas comprising the metropolis virtually grew without a plan (Adejumo, 2003).

Oduwaye (1998) attributes part of the problem of rapid urbanization to the rapid rate of migration from rural areas to urban areas, among other causes. All this growth and rapid urbanization was not without its problems. The tremendous pressure brought on by unplanned urbanization has put pressure on land , resulting in urban sprawl and in largely unmet demand for basic urban services and infrastructure such as water, electricity, sanitation, access roads, public transport, effective drainage and waste disposal. The inevitable result has been the rapid development of slums both on land and along the waterways, including the lagoons where the tidal waves are not so strong as to sweep away the temporary shanties that have been constructed by people who are desperate to live near the city centre but are unable to afford the cost of scarce accommodation. This rapid unplanned growth was characterized by over population of some areas and neglect of other urban areas.

Adejumo (2003) revealed that unplanned developmental activities have continued to alter the metropolitan fringes. The depressed national economy encouraged fringe communities to sell landed properties giving room for the growth of slums. He suggested land acquisition by the government which should extend to the fringes to acquire land as green belts serving as buffers that will contain the sprawl on one hand and delineate the urban edge on the other. This further explains the development of slums and shanties along the fringes of the Lagos lagoon. Definition of Concepts Urban Design

According to Michael, Dodge, Jiang & Smith (1998), design in architectural term refers to the arrangement and planning of houses, roads, streets and paths in a way that allows them to be meaningfully structured; function properly and also make them admirable to behold. According to a report of the European Union Expert Group on the Urban Environment (2004:10), urban design is refers to the physical design and planning of the built environment which is made up of physical infrastructure, complexes, space and urban areas in relation to the natural environment within and around built-up areas. Barnett (1982) defined urban design as the procedure of designing physical buildings that allows for urban growth, conservation and change (cited in Michael, Dodge, Jiang & Smith, 1998). In the view of the South African government (2013), the focal point of urban design is on shaping the built or erected environment in response to the natural, physical, social and economic factors. Put differently, it has a value adding mission to accomplish to the environment by making it good for habitation. In addition, it creates room for the inhabitants of urban centers most especially those with limited ability to tap into the benefits and opportunities of urban living.

Michael, Dodge, Jiang & Smith (1998) in their study on urban design showed a synergy between urban design and sustainable development. They argued that urban design


92

concerns itself with the making of places making and creating sustainable human settlements which includes the designing of individual buildings, groups of buildings, spaces and landscapes. These arrangements at the long run will help establishment of framework and processes that facilitate successful development.

The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (2000) gave another dimension to the understanding of urban development. It mentioned that although the application of designs space are transformed and given relevance, it also addresses the preservation of the natural environment and the conservation of resources. Other importance of a good urban design is that it adds to the quality of life in these urban centers, informs people’s experiences and also informs the identity attached to the city itself. It also allows for the improving of social integration, the promotion of the health of citizens, attends to the psychological welfare of the people as well as ensures economic development (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, 2000; INFRA1219, 2011). Sustainable Development

Development is concerned with improvement. Cuesta, Sarrris and Signoretta (1991) defined sustainability as development that does not cause damages to the physical environment and also allows urban centres to sustain its structures whether social or economic. There are a lot of definitions of sustainable development that give different insight into what they think it is. However despite this hurdle, the Brundtland Report by the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987 gave its own definition which became the commonly known definition of sustainable development (William & Millington, 2004). World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) defines it as “development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

The core component of the definition is the conservation and development of resources. The most relevant resources that are affected by urban design include land, the ecological systems and bio-diversity, air, water, physical infrastructure, the built or developed environment, human health and their well-being, social relation or social capital and cultural heritage (European Union Expert Group on the Urban Environment, 2004:10; Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, 2000, 2). What this point to is that sustainable development like urban design also integrates within its concern environmental, social and economic components. It allows for a long term analyses of economic, biological and social advancement in the light of environmental considerations.

From the above, it is evident that there UD is relevant for development. In fact, Cuesta, Sarrris and Signoretta (1991) emphatically mention that the basis of urban design is the issue of sustainable development. An important significance factor that shows the synergic relationship between urban design and sustainable development is that, the environment must be taken care of for the good of the present generation while also putting the future generations into consideration. Urban Design and Slum Formation Process

Slums are characterized by devalued images of an area of the community which also results in congestion of various uses and inadequate circulation space (George, 1999). According to Agboola (1995), two types of slum exist in Nigerian cities. These are the traditional slums arising in towns from the decay of existing structures and there are spontaneous slums created by squatters on illegally acquired land. (Agboola, 1985; 1987). If this pattern represents the majority of the slums in Lagos, it is necessary to reconsider the use of such terms as ‘traditional’ and ‘spontaneous’ and to show that some slums can appear outside the inner city on legal land.


93

In a study conducted by Abumere (1987) on urban decay in Forty Nigerian cities, he concluded that the cities closely identified with the phenomenon of overcrowding “are large cities, including Lagos, Kano, Ibadan, Benin, Onitsha and they are generally ancient, except Onitsha”. (Abumere 1987: 25-26). Moreover, most of these cities are closely associated with overcrowded and degraded environments. So, urban decay connected with overcrowding is almost entirely a big town problem in Nigeria and concerns, cities like Lagos, Kano, Ibadan and Onitsha.

However, in 1985 about 68.2 percent of the slums in Nigerian cities were found within a radius of 1km from the city centre (Abumere 1985: 33). If there are no resources for urban renewal, the city centre, which is the oldest by definition, town into city a slum in time. Hence, slums on the city outskirts can also be found, normally in the largest Nigerian cities. (Abumere, 1978: 31) in the large and fairly large cities, such as Lagos, Kano, Ibadan and Enugu, a considerable proportion of slums occur at the city outskirts, more than five km from the centre. The major reason is that accommodation in many of the cities has been priced, beyond what most citizens can afford. Many low income workers, therefore, live in low-cost shanties or slums at the city outskirts. Fifteen years later, the situation has not improved in Lagos. Generally poverty has spread out in all Nigerian cities and the Lagos government has not really addressed the issue of slums in the city. Consequently, based on age, location and size, slums in Lagos have been identified as three types:

The oldest and largest slum is the core area of the city, which covers the entire pre-colonial town. A large part of the city can be seen as a slum, even if the inhabitants do not agree that they live in a slum for historical reasons (Mabogunje, 1968). A few small-scale slums, on land occupied illegally by squatters, can be found at the margins of the planned city (Colen, 1973). And numerous slums, generally occupied by tenants on legal lands, are found at the outskirt of the city along major roads or close to local labour market. Their size, history, socio-economic and cultural features differ from one slum to another. Some peripheral slums such as Mile 12, Agege and Ajegunle in Lagos are associated with this type of slum. The slum formation processes have been identified with major causes and effects of slum, which already exist in the city. Sometimes, the blame is put on the people, government and city planners. Hence, this unwholesome scenario calls for revitalization process, which will definitely ameliorate the unpleasant conditions of urban slums and decays in the city at large (George, 2009). Urban Design and Evolution of Slum

Scholars in urban studies have identified that the causes of slum is as a result of poor urban planning, and wretched housing conditions which already exist in the inner-city or a neighbourhood. Others see it as a set of forces that interact to give rise to a devalued physical and social image of an area by a large community (George, 1999). Similarly, low capital formation has been identified with slum areas. In a developing economy like Nigeria, the major cause of slums is low capital formation of the less privileged groups. The income they generate is only enough for sustenance, while they have low capital to utilize in improving their homes or to keep their environment healthy for human habitation. Hence, poor financial position of such residents is the main reason why 6-10 persons would live in a room.

In addition, there is a sense of alienation among the rural-urban migrants of the cities seriously in search of white-collar jobs, which are not available. They find solace in poor quality housing in a filthy environment. They feel a sense of alienation from the whole urban system of life and are satisfied with the fact they can find a place to live in, though substandard and squalid housing result from misuse of dwelling units originally planned for less intensive uses. The effect of slum in a city on the other hand, is as a result of slum-prone areas and forces which is usually associated with developing countries where less planning on cities have led to deteriorating, overcrowding unsanitary conditions, or absence of facilities or


94

amenities such as potable water, drainage systems, schools, health facilities, recreational ground and post office (George, 2009).

The concept of poverty has been identified as a major cause of poor urban design and slum evolution. Poverty can be defined in different ways. Some attempt to reduce it to numbers, while others argue that a more ambiguous definition must be used. In the end, a combination of both methods is used in defining poverty. Generally, economists and social workers use two approaches to define poverty. Some people describe poverty as a lack of essential items, such as food, clothing, water, and shelter, needed for proper living. Poverty also has a social dimension, which include poor quality of housing and the living environment, i.e. lack of access to basic services like clean water, health care, education etc. However, even a definition in economic and social terms does not describe poverty well enough. Apart from not having access to the benefits of development, poverty is also a lack of choice and of voice, of rights and security of participation in decision making (Shubert, 1996). Consequently, urban poverty is a monster with many heads and arms that limits the possibilities available to the poor in the cities. The poor are marginalized to the point where they are unable to determine their own destiny. Two decade ago, only one third of the world's poor was living in urban areas while it is estimated that now half of the poor are concentrated in cities and towns. Currently, it is estimated that of the world's population of six billion people, half of whom live in urban areas, there are over one billion poor people living in slums and spontaneous settlements (UN HABITAT, 2003b).

The urban poor in developing countries find land in the city to live and build their own houses. If possible, they construct their toilet and drainage system. They tap electricity from an adjacent house through an informal connection and if they are threatened with eviction, they find another place to live. They work in irregular and low-paid jobs, and develop and operate micro-enterprises to make a living. They organize their savings and loans groups so that they can make investments in housing or business. They produce and sell goods and services to each other in quantities and quality for which there is a demand among the poor. The urban poor show a great ingenuity in finding solutions to their problems and meeting their basic needs (Fallavier et al, 1999). These solutions most often result into environmental problems inform of sub-standard housing, poor waste disposal system, poor environmental sanitation and degradation among others.

Almost everything the urban poor need is available in the market. However, because the market is informal, the poor have to buy whatever they need at a relatively high cost. Because they do not have much money, they buy goods and services on the informal market where the price per unit tends to be higher than in the formal market. Even if the public sector provides a good or service for free, e.g. education and health care, the poor have to pay to gain access, because free goods and services are always in short supply.

As noted by Fallavier et al, (1999), the urban poor lack information (including information about their rights), therefore, they have to rely on middlemen who often take a disproportional cut. Because they cannot afford to follow the rules and regulations and are forced to operate in the informal sector (for their housing, their micro-business), they are always vulnerable to extortion (Fallavier et al, 1999). The urban poor would be less poor, if they did not have such relatively high costs of living. Implications of Good Urban Design for Sustainable Development

The results of studies carried out by Olokesusi (1994), Anozie (1994) and Fadamiro (2000) on Lagos, Imo and Ondo States examining the negative effects of unplanned urbanization on the urban environment, emphasized that the rapid growth of urban centers in Nigeria generated management problems, such as encroachment of open spaces, inadequate solid waste management, water supply, housing and water pollution. Thus, urbanization


95

according to Osiyi (1989) has resulted in uncontrolled use and development of land, creating chaos and blighted conditions in cities.

Fadamiro and Atolagbe (2006), attribute this to lack of pursuit of landscape planning, design, and management in promoting land use development in Nigeria. Key among the problems of unplanned urbanization was that of urban housing. This was further compounded by a lack of firm land in the physical expansion of the city to accommodate several immigrants both local and foreign as Lagos gained more prominence as a Mega city, ranking 6th world mega city by the year 2000 based on population size

Also the problem of poor terrain assails most of Lagos as much of the land is barely 5 meters above sea level; there is therefore the added problem of poor drainage and insufficient firm land upon which to build and install the basic infrastructure necessary for city dwelling. With the government’s inability to meet up with the housing demands, much of the urban poor found a solution in the construction of shanties along waterfronts, resulting in many slums defacing the water bodies and causing urban blight. The Lagos lagoon is home to many of such settlements and Makoko is one of them (BBC, 2010).

Furthermore, poor urban design and construction methods have a significant effect on health and the environment. Sustainable urban design is essential in order to ensure that urban settlement patterns take account of environmental factors. It must encapsulate the integration of urban environment issues at three levels: in the most relevant community policies (transport, health, research and technological development), in key sectors of community environment policy (water, air, noise, waste, nature and biodiversity) and between the different levels of administration (national, state and local); sustainable construction strategies are of great importance (George, 2009).

In the housing unit, lead exposure, poor indoor air quality and contaminated construction materials are some of the health risks. Lead paint is still used in much of the developing world. In addition to ingestion of paint chips and dust tracked into the home, exposure can also occur by drinking water carried through lead pipes. Lead poisoning can reduce IQ and cause learning and attention disabilities. In high doses it can cause kidney damage, anemia, and death (Habbitat, 1984).

Poor indoor air quality is associated with respiratory infection, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, respiratory tract cancers, tuberculosis, cataracts, and asthma. The burning of solid fuels such as dung, wood, and coal, exposes people who use them to particulates, nitrogen and sulfur compounds, and benzene. Asthma sensitizers and triggers found indoors include dust mites; cockroach, pet, and rodent allergens; molds; fine dust; tire fragments; and chemical air pollution such as tobacco smoke, wood smoke, and volatile organic compounds from building materials (Habbitat, 1984).

Another source of housing-related health problems is building materials commonly used in slum housing. Composite wood panels such as particleboard are vulnerable to moisture damage that can encourage mold growth. Mold is known to be an allergen and a lung irritant, particularly for people with asthma. The resin glue used in some particleboard, plywood paneling, and fiberboard also releases formaldehyde, a volatile organic compound that can impair lung function and cause cancer at high doses (Habbitat, 1984). Conclusion

Unplanned settlements in developing countries are the product of rapid urbanization, which is bringing migrants from rural areas to industrialized centres and main cities in increasing numbers. In the housing literature, these settlements have been referred as: spontaneous settlements, in reference to the absence of government aid and control; uncontrolled settlements, in reference to their lack of regulation; shantytowns, in reference to the poor quality of construction; popular settlements, in recognition of the fact that they are inhabited by low-income people; marginal settlements, in recognition to the role their


96

inhabitants are assumed to play in urban society and to their location within the city; and transitional settlements, as an expression of the positive view that they can, over time, become consolidated and permanent settlements.

These unplanned settlements have shown to be effective housing delivery systems for the urban poor in developing countries. In most of these countries, it is widely accepted that unplanned settlements will result, over a period of time, in settlements with characteristics similar to planned urban areas for comparable income groups. The ability of the urban poor to provide housing by themselves is not fully recognized in most of the official housing programs, usually managed by government agencies. Efforts on both sides, the state and the users, are not efficiently utilized. Most official low-income housing proposals are still based on pre-assumed standards rather than on the existing requirements of the intended users. Recommendations

The government and other relevant agencies should ensure that both old and new buildings conform to sustainable design parameters in order to reduce the frequency of disease occurrence in the study area. Modern public health calls for comprehensive and systematic efforts that address health inequalities and urban poverty. The root cause of ill health, whether socio-economic or environmental must be identified. It is essential that an urban health agenda be formulated. It must articulate the complex relationships among poverty, health and the environment and position health considerations in the centre of economic regeneration and urban development efforts. The successful reconnection of planning and public health will

require the redefinition of urban planning to include addressing health disparities. Design and construction must also align with best practices and ensure that health friendly methods and materials are used for construction.

Also, previous research, indicate that water tourism can be a major revenue source, particularly for developing economies like Nigeria (Falade, 1998). This call for change in the way the existing fringes of the Lagos waterways is currently being used. With proper planning, the area along the Lagos lagoon edge where Makoko is also located can undergo a renewal that will position the lagoon for better development and subsequently for water tourism development. Due to the strategic location of Makoko, the Lagos State government should give the community an uplifting and transform Makoko into a commercial and entertainment hot-spot on the lagoon. References: Abumere, S. I.: The Nigerian Urban Environment and the Problem of Slums. Unpublished Paper, Department of Geography, University of Ibadan, 1985. Abumere, S.I. :‘Urbanization and Urban Decay in Nigeria’. In: P Onibokun, F Olokesusi and L Egunjobi (Eds) Urban Renewal in Nigeria. NISER, Ibadan, 1987. Adejumo, O. T : Developmental Strategy for Sustainable Public Open Space System in Metropolitan Lagos: The City in Nigeria. OAU, Ile-Ife, p. 112 -120, 2003. Agboola, T.: ‘The Prospect for Private Sector Involvement in Urban Management Functions in Nigeria’. Review Of Urban And Regional Development Studies 6: 135-149,1994. Agboola, T. :‘Urban Renewal: A Case Study of Lagos Metropolitan Area’. In: P Onibokun, F Olokesusi and L Egunjobi, Urban Renewal in Nigeria. NISER: Ibadan, 1987. Anozie U.C. : Environmental Sanitation Control in Imo State, Nigeria: In Urban Management And Urban Violence In Africa. Vol.1 IFRA, UI: Ibadan, 1994. Cohen, A.:Custom and Politics in Urban Africa. A Study of Hausa Migrants in Yoruba Towns. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University Of California Press, 1973. Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment: By Design: Urban Design in the Planning System, 2000. Retrieved On February 12, 2014 from


97

https://www.gov.uk/Government/Uploads/System/Uploads/Attachment_Data/File/7665/158490.Pdf Cuesta, R., C. Sarrris & Signoretta, P.: Urban Design: Methods and Techniques. Great Britain: Plant A Tree, 1991. European Union Expert Group on the Urban Environment: Urban Design for Sustainability. Final Report of the Working Group on Urban Design for Sustainability to the European Union Expert Group on the Urban Environment January 23, 2004. Fadamiro J.A. & A.M.O Atolagbe : Urban Environmental Sustainability: A Challenge to Effective Landscaping in Nigeria.” Dimensi Teknik Arsitektur, Pp. 34(1), 44-51, 2006. Fadamiro J.A.: Outdoor Spaces and Their Landscape Qualities: A Comparative Analysis of Three Neighbourhoods in Lagos, Nigeria. Journal of Urban and Environmental Research, Pp. 2, 55-67, 2000. Falade J.B.: Public Acquisition of Land for Landscaping and Open Space Management” Journal of Nigeria Institute of Town Planners, p. 11, 1-13, 1998. Fallavier, P., et al.: Poverty Analysis in Phnom Penh: Analytical Report of Findings and Basis for Policy and Project Directions, 1999. George C. K.: Attaining Sustainable Development in Lagos Metropolis- A Challenge for Town Planners. Paper Presented At 27th Annual Conference of Nigeria, Institute of Town Planners, and Benin-City: Edo State, 1999. George, C. K. : The Challenges of Urbanisation in Nigerian Urban Centres: The Lagos Mega City Situation – A Town Planner’s Perspective. Libro-Gem Books Ltd: Lagos, 2009. Global Competitive Index: World Economic Forum, 2013/2014. Global Urban Observatory: Slums of the World. The Face of Urban Poverty in the New Guidance Sheets: London, 2003. Habbitat : Upgrading Of Inner City Slum, (UNCHS), Nairobi: Kenya, 1984. Mabogunje A.: Urbanization in Nigeria. University of London Press, 1968. Micheal, B, Dodge, M, Jiang, B., Smith, A.: GIS and Urban Design. Working Paper Series 3. Center for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) Working Paper 3, 1998. Oduwaye, A. O.: Urban Landscape Planning Experience in Nigeria. Landscape and Urban Planning, p. 43, 133-142, 1998. Olokesusi F: Sustainability and Solid Waste Management In Metropolitan Lagos: The Imperative For A New Paradigm. In Urban Management and Urban Violence in Africa. Vol.1. IFRA, UI Ibadan, 1994. Osiyi S..D.: Landscape Design as a Tool for Improving Enugu Neighbourhoods. A Case Study of Oguwi New Layout, Enugu. Unpublished Thesis Dissertation UNN Enugu Campus, 1989. Shubert, C.: Building Partnerships for Urban Poverty Alleviation: Community- Based Programmes in Asia, Urban Management Programme, UNCHS, 1996. South African Government: Urban Design Policy. 2013. http://Www.Capetown.Gov.Za/En/Planningportal/Documents/130416%20draft%2013%20urban%20design%20policy.Pdf UN-Habitat: Slums of the World: The Face of Urban Poverty in the New Millennium. Nairobi, United Nation: UN Millennium Project’s Report to the UN Secretary-General. Investing In Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals Washington Williams, C. C. & Millington, A. C.: The Diverse and Contested Meaning of Sustainable Development. The Geographical Journal, 170(2), Pp. 99–104, 2004. World Commission on Environment and Development WCED: Our Common Future. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1987. BBC Welcome to Lagos, Makoko Documentary, Thursday, September 23, 2010


98

NOMADIC FEMINISM: FOUR LINES OF FLIGHT

Zeina Al Azmeh, MA Qatar University, Qatar

Abstract Since its first wave in the late nineteenth century, feminism has reached a legitimation

crisis the emergence from which is critical for its survival as a political movement. Several subjective figurations have been proposed by feminists and theorists in order to enable a leap beyond the impasses that feminism faces today. In this paper, the subjective figuration of the Nomad is explored as presented by Rosi Braidotti and inspired by poststructuralist theory, in particular the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze. It is suggested that if feminism has been disserved by the second wave’s adoption of rigid masculinist structures, then the fluid ways of nomadic subjectivity provide valuable tools for advancing it. The argument is formulated around the Deleuzian concept of ‘lines of flight’ suggesting four ways in which nomadic theory offers exit lines from significant impasses confronting contemporary feminism. It is suggested that these exist lines carry potential to move the feminist movement beyond its current stasis; beyond postmodernist cynicism; beyond linear, hierarchical and exclusionary phallogocentrism; and most significantly beyond an outdated reactive and dogmatic feminism.

Keywords: Nomadism, Feminism, Deleuze, Braidotti Introduction Since its rise in the late nineteenth century with a powerful first wave, feminism has reached within a century a legitimation crisis the emergence from which is critical for any prospect for its survival as a political movement. A trust crisis between mainstream women and feminism was being addressed as early as 1991; a backlash whose workings are for the most part ‘encoded and internalised’ (Faludi, 2006, p. xxii). In 1993, the same studies that indicated strong majority support for feminist ideals showed that most women hesitate to affiliate themselves with the movement (Kaminer, 1993). By the end of the 90s, the excesses of ‘gender feminists’ of the second wave who dominated the women’s movement with an ‘ideology of men as abusers and women as victims’ (Levit, 1998), ensured that enthusiasm for feminism would wane. Today, in a twenty-first century of postfeminist and postmodernist impasses, feminism is thirsty for creative figurations18 that offer alternative subjectivities with new frameworks, perspectives, and modes of thought; not only beyond the rigid structures and ‘perversely monological mental habits of phallocentrism’ (Braidotti, 1994, p. 2), but also beyond the reactive dogmatic approaches of traditional feminism that led to stasis and an apparent redundancy in the movement following the political accomplishments of its second wave.

Several such figurations have been proposed by feminists, from Donna Harawy’s cyborg to Irigaray’s Goddess and Cixous’ Medusa. One that strikes as particularly relevant to

18 Braidotti defines a figuration as a “politically informed account of an alternative subjectivity” ( (Braidotti, Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory, 1994)


99

the issue of formulating a feminist figuration attuned to feminine dispositions19 is Nomadism as presented by Rosi Braidotti’s work and inspired by poststructuralist theory, in particular the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze. If feminism has been disserved by its second wave’s adoption of rigid masculinist structures and methods20, then the fluid feminine structures21 of nomadic theory provide valuable tools for advancing it.

I will formulate my arguments around the Deleuzian concept of ‘lines of flight’ suggesting four ways in which nomadic theory offers exit lines from significant impasses confronting contemporary feminism. But before getting started, let’s begin by defining nomadic feminism.

Deleuze and Guattari describe the nomad as a person who is constantly between points of arrival, characterized by continuous movement and change.

The nomad has a territory; he follows customary paths; he goes from one point to another; he is not ignorant of points (water points, dwelling points, assembly points, etc.)… although the points determine paths, they are strictly subordinated to the paths they determine, the reverse of what happens with the sedentary. The water point is reached only in order to be left behind; every point is a relay and exists only as a relay. A path is always between two points, but the in-between has taken on all the consistency and enjoys both an autonomy and a direction of its own. The life of the nomad is the intermezzo. (Deleuze & Guattari, 1988, p. 380)

Rosi Braidotti takes this figuration further by reworking it into feminist theory.22 Building on the premise that nomadism entails a total dissolution of the notion of a centre and consequently of imaginary sites of authentic identities (Braidotti, 1994, p. 5), she delineates the many ways in which nomadic subjectivity lends itself to feminist theory and draws pathways away from stasis through a subjectivity that is heterogeneous, transgressive, deterritorialized, performative and affirmative. This figuration offers a way out of the phallocentric vision of the subject. Braidotti (1994, p. 8) sees in the nomadic state the potential for ‘opening up new possibility for life and thought, especially for women.’ In the following paragraphs I suggest four lines of flight23 revealed by nomadic theory to realize such possibility, transporting feminism beyond its most intractable impasses and through the twenty-first century. I Beyond stasis and fixity

Feminist writers have long recognized the need for new perspectives to dislodge the movement from its present state of inertia, a state brought on by large-scale female disenchantment with second-wave feminist tactics and rhetoric. This stasis has been aggravated by a general sense of apathy and uncertainty produced by the radical relativism inherent in postmodernist thinking. Braidotti contends that feminist philosophy has moved beyond the premises that mark its beginnings (Braidotti, 2003, p. 211) and shows how the

19 Whether such dispositions are biologically rooted or socially constructed is not something I will not explore in this essay. However, towards the end of the essay I will discuss how Braidotti reformulates a notion of essentialism that goes beyond essentialist/antiessentialist binarism. 20 This is particularly observable in second wave feminism’s dogmatic man-hating bra-burning myths. 21 When using the terms ‘masculine and feminine structures’ I do not refer to an essentialist assumption that any such innate structures exist, but instead to the socially constructed and distinct styles of operation associated with men versus women. 22Other spatial metaphors abound in feminist politics and scholarship; there are feminist ‘geographies’ in the visual arts and ‘cartographies’ of political struggle. ‘Politics of location’, ‘situated knowledges’, ‘hybridity’ and of course ‘nomadic identities’ are a few such metaphors. (McDowell, 2003, p. 13) Other links have also been made between the work of Deleuze and Guattari and feminist theory. 23 Miguel Rojas-Sotelo offers a succinct definition of Deleuze’s lines of flight as ‘the available means of escape from the forces of repression and stratification.’ (Lerner)


100

nomadic figuration can instigate change and thwart stasis through creative alternatives (Braidotti, 1994, p. 2). The invention of new approaches and theoretical tools transposes those same factors perceived as crises of values into spaces of new possibility.

One medium for such a transposition is parody. Nomadism entails a constant state of ‘becoming’ which refers to as the practice of ‘as-if’. It is a technique for strategic relocation that enables us to ‘rescue what we need of the past in order to trace paths of transformation of our lives here and now’ (Braidotti, 2011, p. 27). The use of parody in the practice of ‘as-if’ is an affirmation of fluid boundaries and a tool for change that forces us to avoid repetitions which bring about political stagnation, thus opening spaces where new forms of agency can be engendered. The force of the parodic mode, she claims, consists in its potential for opening up, through mimetic repetitions, spaces for alternative forms of agency (Braidotti, 1994, pp. 6-7) . Braidotti’s Parody, however is not an end in itself or some form of ‘fetishist disavowal’, she assures, but rather a way to stir; to free and enliven thought while remaining sufficiently anchored to a historical position to accept responsibility (Braidotti, 2006, p. 75). While grounded in poststructuralist discourse of repetition, parody, irony, multiplicity and contingency, Braidotti seeks a parody that is politically enabling. For the practice of ‘as-if’ to be useful, it must not be mere feitshistic representation but rather it must be rooted in deliberate agency and lived experience. A grounded subjectivity must not be lost as suggested by polemics of postmodernist ideas. On the contrary, Braidotti shows how postmodern subversions like repetition, parody and irony can be politically empowering if they are sustained by a critical consciousness and a commitment to transformation and change. (Vrasidas & Glass, 2002, p. 209)

Thus, by displacing the subject, nomadic theory opens a new space for redefining identity and political subjectivity as sites of resistance. This is an important move for minority vocations in general and for 21st century feminism in particular: ‘A radical feminist postmodernist practice requires attention to be paid both to identity as a set of identifications and to political subjectivity as the quest for sites of resistance’ (Braidotti, 1994, p. 22).

The power of voluntary and continuous displacements, both literal and figurative, to endow a political subjectivity of resistance is exemplified in Braidotti’s own life choices. Born in Italy, raised in Australia, educated in Paris and currently living and teaching in the Netherlands, she sees the nomad as a subject who is neither country-less nor homeless, but has relinquished all idea, desire, or nostalgia for fixity. (1994, p. 22) Figurative displacement can also be seen in her commitment to a transgressive mode of thinking that constantly challenges established notions. This is exemplified in her choice of scholarship, deviating from established discourse and wandering in a fertile desert of empty spaces24: ‘my choice of location within the field of women’s study is a reflection of my desire for nomadism, that is to say, my desire to suspend all attachment to established discourse’ (Braidotti, 1994, p. 18). Through figurative and literal displacement, nomadism resists stasis by enabling a critical consciousness and a continuous transformative relocation of identity.

Such nomadic identities are structurally opposed to fixity. Braidotti (1994, p. 36) explains that if identity is retrospective, then to represent it we can only draw maps of places where we have already been, but no longer are. Nomadic cartographies must therefore constantly be redrafted and, as such, they are structurally opposed to fixity.

Yet despite the constant flux in a nomadic subject, his experience and knowledge are situated. It is true that by deconstructing identity, nomadic subjectivity is able to adopt a state of successive transitions, displacements and shifts, without and against an essential unity. But the nomad is not completely devoid of unity. He/she adopts ‘a consistent mode of seasonal patterns of movement…repetitions, cyclical moves, rhythmical displacements’ (Braidotti, 1994, p. 22). Thus by combining coherence with mobility, Braidotti offers a nonreactive, 24 Braidotti talks about how the nomadic aesthetic entails a fascination with the solitude of empty spaces as sites for innovation which reinstate agency into feminism (Braidotti, 1994, p. 18).


101

creative and yet situated rethinking of the unity of the subject; ‘instead of following the trajectory of linear, chronological teleology, her thinking aims to be rhythmical and cyclical, thus in a certain sense situated’ (Mortensen, 2003, p. 12). Beyond postmodernist cynicism

The nomad, then, is a transgressive subject, structurally opposed to fixity and able through the use of parody and continuous displacement to maintain a position of political resistance and agency. This agency, however, is already reconciled with postmodernist disillusionments about subjective unity, mastery and self-knowledge. Nomadic feminism redefines a feminist subjectivity that works ‘within the parameters of the postmodern predicament’ (Braidotti, 1994, p. 2). By acknowledging the arbitrary nature of language and respecting the complexity that surrounds us, yet without becoming mired in absurdity, nomadism offers a line of flight away from postmodernist cynicism and apathy. To illustrate this, I will introduce the polyglot, who is sceptical about fixed identities and yet committed to political agency.

Braidotti offers the figure of the linguistic nomad to underline the nomadic figuration. The polyglot, she suggests, counters phallocentric and dogmatic thought by offering continuous displacements in the guise of language transitions, and thus asserts our condition as fragmented beings in a constant state of translation. As cited by Braidotti Julia Kristeva suggests that ‘the state of translation is the common condition of all thinking beings’ (1994, p. 11). The polyglot is then deeply involved in a poststructuralist deconstruction of identity. A polyglot herself, Braidotti is ‘struck by the violence of the gesture that binds a fractured self to the performative illusion of unity, mastery, self-transparence’ (1994, p. 12). She calls for a feminist political resistance to the illusion of unity, championed by the polyglot. By dint of the robust critical distance granted him/her by a constant state of transit between languages, the polyglot is capable of ‘healthy scepticism about steady identities and mother tongues’, and thus has a privileged ‘vantage point for deconstructing identity’ (Braidotti, 1994, p. 12). Indeed, the polyglot is fully invested in a postmodernist fragmentation of the subject; and yet, he is not cynical.

Braidotti, Rosi. Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory. New York: Columbia UP, 2011. Print.

On the contrary, it is because the polyglot practices ‘a sort of gentle promiscuity with different linguistic bedrocks’ (Braidotti, 2011, p. 39) that he is committed to a political resistance against oppressive ideology. The polyglot ‘has long since relinquished any notion of linguistic or ethnic purity.’ Because he has no mother tongue, the polyglot understands and despises the tyranny of concepts such as ethnic purity, nationalism, and mother tongues. Lacan says there is no mother tongue, just father tongues. Indeed, the sanctification of national language belongs to the dogmatic world of phallologocentrism. The polyglot knows that language is merely ‘a site of symbolic exchange that links us together in a tenuous and yet workable web of mediated misunderstandings, which we call civilization’ (Braidotti, 1994, p. 13).

From where the polyglot stands, the world is made up of multiplicity, arbitrariness, and stuttering. ‘All knowledge is situated, that is to say partial; we are stuttering for words, even when we speak “fluently”’ (Braidotti, 1994, p. 14). Yet, to the polyglot this does not translate into cause for apathy but rather into political agency and resistance of despotism, repression and oppression. The polyglot is able to ‘respect the complexity, not drown in it’, thus becoming ‘an ethical entity, confronting multiplicity and yet avoiding relativism. She is the archetype of the postmodern subject; ‘struck by the maddening, fulminating insight about the arbitrariness of linguistic meanings and yet resisting the free fall into cynicism.’ By acknowledging that ‘arbitrary does not equate absurd’ (Braidotti, 1994, p. 15), the nomadic polyglot reclaims the sober political agency needed by feminism today thus offering a line of


102

flight beyond the cynicism engendered by postmodern fragmentation of the self, as well as by the randomness of language and our world. Beyond linear, hierarchical and exclusionary phallogocentrism

Perhaps the intellectual impasses and political stasis in feminist theory today are at least partially caused by the movement’s adoption of phallogocentric academic discourse. This type of discourse seems to display an unshakable commitment to the linear and hierarchical patterns of the canon. Braidotti suggests alternative structures for nomadic feminist thought based on the Deleuzian rhizome which counters the tree mode of the phallogocentric. In contrast with the tree (of knowledge), the rhizome is non-linear and non-hierarchical. Instead of a root, trunk, branches and leaves, a rhizome has a horizontal network with no singular root or centre. It represents multiplicity, interconnection, and diversity that counter the singularity, linearity, hierarchy and phallogocentrism of academic discourse.

Conversely, nomadic feminism offers a channel to revive poststructuralist thought, a mode of discourse which Braidotti suggests is crucial in order to counter a return to chauvinism. She shows how following the political defeat of the Left and the rise of nationalist neoconservatism, traditionalist reverence to the canon can be shaken through feminist thought.

I think feminism is one of the forums where the essence of the poststructuralist debate could be carried on: it is one of the escape routes for ideas that would otherwise have become extinct. Poststructuralism may survive by taking the nomadic route of feminism (Braidotti, 1994, p. 29).

Both poststructuralist discourse and feminist theory strive to leave behind the linear mode of thinking that most of us ‘have been trained to respect and emulate’ (Braidotti, 1994, p. 30); a mode of thinking which results in encouraging a dutiful and hindering repetition of canonical traditions which are colonized by masculinity. Following a long feminist tradition pioneered by Beauvoir who uncovers the fake universalism of reason and philosophical thinking, Braidotti wants feminism to break away from the revered and oppressive structures of academia and high theory.

Braidotti is concerned with establishing a feminist discourse which enables political subjectivity as a site of resistance; resistance to phallogocentrism, ethnocentrism and the positivity of difference. As such she is sceptical of the theoretical capacity and the moral/political willingness of philosophy, as an academic discipline, to act in nonhegemonic, nonexclusionary ways.

Philosophy – as a discipline of thought- is highly phallogocentric and antinomadic; it maintains a privileged bond to domination, power, and violence and consequently requires mechanisms of exclusion and domination as part of its standard practices. Philosophy creates itself through what it excludes as much as what it asserts. (Braidotti, 1994, p. 33)

Nomadic thinking, she proposes is by contrast a project which aims to engender a decentred subjectivity beyond the limiting normativity of phallogocentric academic discourse. While she is cautious of the cannibalistic tendencies of high theory to assimilate new ideas even if they were alien, she is confident that ‘nomads can run faster and endure longer trips than most: thus they cannot be assimilated easily’ (1994, p. 33)

Braidotti’s denunciation of the ivory towers of academia is paralleled by a criticism of feminist utopian exiles. While she shares Seyla Benhabib’s ethical commitment to the political empowerment of women, (p. 32) she is sceptical about her use of ‘exile’ as a suitable metaphor for a feminist subjectivity. Benhabib’s exiles, ‘a diaspora of an elected few’, adopt an external vantage point ‘beyond the city walls’ to enable a framework for social critique. By contrast Braidotti calls for a ‘massive abandonment of the logocentric polis’ and prefers an active position in which instead of an exile outside the city walls, nomads put up their camps at the city gates, ‘the alleged “center” of the empire’, before crossing the next stretch of


103

desert. The nomad offers no plea for readmission. There are no possibilities for negotiating with and repairing the problems of phallogocentric regimes. For Braidotti, they are beyond repair. The nomad is a radical manifestation of this impossibility of reform; a ‘gesture of nonconfidence in the capacity of the polis to undo the power foundations on which it rests’ (1994, p. 32). Therefore Braidotti does not only object to the linearity and hierarchy and exclusionism of phallogocentric hegemony but also to feminist attempts to negotiate with it. Beyond reactive dogmatic feminism

I now return to my earlier claim in the introduction to this essay, that contrary to many feminist schools, Braidotti’s nomadic feminism is compatible with our understanding of the feminine disposition25 and thus presents a less rigid and reactive approach to feminism. The nomadic figuration is generous in acknowledging that being a woman is always there as an ontological precondition for a female subject’s existential becoming (Braidotti, 1989, p. 102). I contend that this very acknowledgment holds potential for broadening women’s identification with institutionalised feminism through its nomadic version. Such potential broad appeal has been problematized by feminist writers as a shallow commodification of feminism (Karpinski, 1999) and (Gedalof, 2000). I will get back to this later. But for now, I will try to show how by ‘nomadizing’ feminism, Braidotti offers an exit point from traditional schools of feminism, thus replacing reactive strategies and quasi phallocentric dogmatism with affirmative and creative approaches and theoretical tools. In other words, I will attempt to argue that nomadism is structurally feminine.

Firstly, the re-examined relationship between home and woman reveals how nomadic rootlessness can be appropriated as a female metaphor. Postcolonial thinkers (Said, 2001) and psychoanalysts (Grinberg & Grinberg, 1989) have tied exile to nationalism- a patriarchal notion par excellence. However, as many feminist writers have been trying to show, exile can be detached from nationalism, and reclaimed as a ‘female’ metaphor

‘There is a whole tradition of feminist interpretation, going back to Virginia Woolf, that views nationalism as male and juxtaposes it with female exile, epitomized by Woolf’s (1938, 1978) famous figure of woman as an outsider who says, “in fact, as a woman, I have no country. As a woman I want no country. As a woman my country is the whole world.” This tradition is continued by such feminist critics as Helene Cixous (1980), Luce Irigaray (1985, 1993), Caren Kaplan (1987), Julia Kristeva (1991), or Gerardine Meaney (1993), who have embraced exile for its subversive potential. Kristeva uses Greek mythology to associate the very origin of the concept of exile and foreignness with women. She interprets the stories of Io and Danaides as prototypical figures of female exiles, fleeing sexual entrapment and choosing their own bodies over their native lands…Kristava recognizes sexual difference itself as accountable for women’s exiled condition in relation to patriarchy’. (Karpinski, 1999, p. 21)

Karpinski also shows how Helene Cixous draws a metaphor of women as exiles who are systematically excluded from history, language, and the symbolic, and economically subjugated and culturally alienated by phallocentrism. We have also seen how Seyla Benhabib adopts the metaphor of a feminist exile as prerequisite for finding a utopian space

25 The whole debate around the existence of any such essentially feminine disposition has been central to feminist discourse. In her essay on the ‘politics of ontological difference’ Braidotti transcends both essentialist conceptions of femininity and their antithesis. Perhaps this could be seen as a fifth line of flight beyond essentialist/anti-essentialist debate opened by her Nomadic Feminism. Instead, Braidotti suggests a reformulated notion of essentialism as a historical category that recognizes both social and biological factors (McNay, 2000, p. 91). This historical category, McNay suggests, recognises and affirms the totality of definitions that have been made of women, and provides the foundation for ‘a symbolic bond among women qua female sexed beings’ (Braidotti, 1989, p. 102). McNay argues that such a proposition not only transcends essentialist/antiessentialist binarism, but also configures gender identity ‘beyond the dichotomy of stasis and change unleashed by the essentialist debate’ (McNay, 2000, p. 91).


104

for distancing oneself from the city in order to critique the dominant order. Home then can be seen as male, while leaving home (exile, migration, nomadism) is a metaphor more closely connected with woman.

Moreover, not only is the notion that home is associated with the feminine, while mobility is seen as masculine, contested by feminists. But the relationship between woman and home has been problematized to an extent that home can be seen as enemy to woman. Linda McDowell talks about a strong criticism of the notion of home and domesticity developed in the early writings of second wave feminists.

For most women, the home is a site of social relations that are structured by power and inequality. It is the location of unpaid labour – still mainly the responsibility of women, despite the rapid rises in women’s waged employment in the last decades of the twentieth century. For too many women too, the home is a place dominated by fears of domestic violence and abuse, where women and children are the victims of male aggression. It is also less private than many commentators assume…[and] as Foucault argued so persuasively, the location of self-surveillance that ensures that even in the most private of acts the capillary structures of power in a modern state make certain that most behaviour conforms to societal norms. (McDowell, 2003, p. 15)

If until fairly recently, and still in some parts of the planet, the home was a site of exploitative patriarchal relations and the appropriation of women’s labour by men, it is only predictable that notions such as nomadism would hold such promise and appeal to women in the process of discovering the thrills of an emancipated existence. But this does not necessarily obliterate a historical relationship between women and home-making. I would suggest that the nomadic way of life is highly dependent on such a relationship. Women’s nesting instincts; their ability to use whichever resources they are presented with to make a home anywhere, can continue to be talents that make the nomadic way not only possible but also beautiful. From Bedouins to Twaregs, nomadic women have had a unique ability to carry the ‘home within’ wherever they go, making the necessary aesthetic and practical arrangements to ensure that time spent at any home, no matter how temporary, can be enjoyed by themselves and the people in their lives. Figuratively too, one might suggest that a uniquely feminine reserve of spirituality enables women to reinvent their identities, transform their lives, and relocate their subjectivity without losing themselves; always relying on their inner ability to ‘make a home’ out of new identities, subjectivities, places and situations. Through such an appropriation of nomadism as an innately feminine figuration, I suggest, the schism between laywomen and feminism may be bridged.

Lastly, nomadism offers a gentle approach to change which acknowledges and respects the difference between will and desire, thus permitting women the time and freedom of expression necessary to achieve an internalized denunciation of subjugating patterns rather than an ideologically imposed one. It can be argued that the historical necessity for a reactive, combative, critical and doctrinaire feminism is over, following the political and legislative achievements of the movement. The continuation of such a tradition has led institutionalized feminism to a crisis of legitimation which must be overcome by new theoretical styles as we have seen. By insisting on a patient, broad-minded, affirmative, non-reactive and creative approach, Braidotti formulates a feminism that acknowledges the difference between wilful political choices and unconscious desires. For example, her openness to multiplicity and creative role playing through the practice of “as-if” (in contrast with dogmatic restrictive feminism) permit a non-reactive, non-defensive approach to emancipated womanhood which allows for responsible but free manifestations of desires through a politically conscious practice of parody. This way, women can ‘play’ women if it so addresses their desires, as long as they are politically conscious of the performative aspects of their gender play, of where it comes from, and where it could lead. Thus nomadism allows women the space and


105

time they need to change oppressive patterns at a deep, unconscious level, rather than at a superficial and ultimately unsustainable conceptual level.

Braidotti (1994, p. 31) recognizes that we have internalized phallocentric structures so much that transformation will inevitably be a painful process. I think feminism has too often been dismissed as a project which denies women the freedom to express the ways of their gender as they have learnt them. By calling for an immediate displacement of women outside their traditional gender roles on ideological grounds, feminism attempted a shortcut which compromised its ability to achieve its cultural objectives on a wide scale. This attempt to impose will on desire is seen by Braidotti as a dangerous shortcut: ‘One cannot take shortcuts through one’s unconscious; the women who attempt to cheat their way across – especially female feminists- are playing with fire… inner, psychic or unconscious structures are very hard to change by sheer volition.” (Braidotti, 1994, p. 31)

Nomadism’s contribution in this regard is paramount. By understanding and respecting the difficulties entailed in inventing and accepting new performative gender roles, it urges us to find new creative, nonreactive and affirmative ways of asserting sexual difference as a positive force ‘emancipated from the oppressive force of the traditional theoretical approach’ (p. 31). Braidotti stresses that this must be a slow process that allows for ‘internal contradictions and attempts to negotiate between unconscious structures of desire and conscious political choices.’ Conclusion

I have argued so far that Nomadic theory offers an alternative figuration which has the potential to open exit lines from some of the impasses of post-second-wave-feminism. In this last line-of-flight, I made a perhaps contentious claim that such potential is related to nomadic feminism’s collusion with existing notions of femininity. Some of the examples I referred to were nomadic feminism’s receptiveness of diverse ways in which women express emancipated womanhood (typical of third wave feminism). I also tried to claim that nomadic subjectivity allows women to flee the oppressive home while embracing their feminine home-making instincts. I concluded by contending that nomadic feminism’s gentle acknowledgment of the time necessary to change internalized notions of femininity (or feminine disposition) is key to its appeal to women at a broader scale.

As exciting as such propositions are to women who believe in feminist ideals but do not necessarily identify themselves as feminists, Braidotti’s nomadic figuration has not gone uncontested by feminists. One of the most common angles from which her theory has been criticized is the idea that nomadism is a fitting metaphor only for those with privilege; White Western middle-class feminists (Karpinski, 1999) and (Gedalof, 2000).

Karpinski for example views Braidotti’s treatment of exile and nomadism as an illustration of ‘the dangers of postmodernist feminism unrestrained by moral and ethical concerns’ (Karpinski, 1999, pp. 21-24). She finds her figuration ‘cannibalistic’ in the sense that it romanticizes tragic positions of women (nomads, homeless, disabled)26 and accuses her of speaking ‘from the site of white, middle-class privilege, forgetting that those multilingual voices… often negotiate their languages from the position of powerlessness’ (Karpinski, 1999, p. 24). Similarly, Gedalof finds nomadism to be an option only for western middle-class women. She is concerned that for black, diasporic, postcolonial and other less privileged feminists, this option is not really available (Gedalof, 2000, p. 344).

Karpinski is also uncomfortable with the amount of appeal nomadic feminism may hold for women. She finds it ‘troubling’ that Braidotti’s ‘eclectic feminism can be constructed

26 Karpinksi seems to have overlooked Braidotti’s keen differentiation between the nomad (as a constant traveller by choice and vocation), and the exile or the migrant. In fact, Braidotti herself is not quite comfortable with Woolf’s position on women’s countrylesness and the whole romanticization of the notion of exile and the right to belong which are ‘too serious merely to be metaphorised into a new ideal (Braidotti, 1994, p. 22).


106

as a new commodity to be sold to women, one more product promising self-transformation and self-fulfilment, marketed as ‘an object of desire for women’ (Karpinski, 1999, p. 24).

While it is true that nomadism may be both middle-class-centric and marketable, I don’t see why the rootedness of nomadic feminism in a Western middle-class perspective and its potential for broad appeal, would necessarily restrict its ability to advance feminist ideals and instigate real and universal political change. It is true that developing a figuration is only the first step. But it is an important first step whose substance can only indeed be determined by the extent to which it is translatable into political transformation. Linda McDowell (2003, p. 28) eloquently calls for a commitment to transform the optimism that informs such notions into political agendas that address the continued subjugation of women, people of colour and the poor. She urges feminist theorists ‘not to neglect the structural processes of inequality that characterize capitalist societies and that continue to divide the interests of people along class, gender and ethnic lines’ (McDowell, 2003, p. 28).

Karpinski herself recognizes that ‘the mode of being an exile enables new ways of knowing the world.’ And that ‘it might be a formula characterizing any social movement, provided [emphasis mine] that the next step would lead to the mode of acting.’ (Karpinski, 1999, p. 24)

While arguably Eurocentric, Braidotti’s nomadic figuration has fascinating potential not only for an enriching personal transformation for thousands of women around the world, but also for a political impact beyond the centre of the feminist movement. With new technologies that compress distance and the opportunities they present for virtual communities of interest, a new international politics of coalition is possible. Such a coalition based on a collective passion for nomadic subjectivity could not only raise key question for feminist scholars in the metropolises of the industrial West, but also open possibilities; lines of flight, for a continued progressive transformation in the every-day lives of women around the world. References: Ahmed, S. (1998). Differences That Matter: Feminist Thoery and Postmodernism. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. Braidotti, R. (1989). The Politics of Onyological Difference. London: Routledge. Braidotti, R. (1994). Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory. New York: Columbia U.P. Braidotti, R. (2003). Feminist Philosophies. In M. Eagelton, Feminist Theory (pp. 195-214). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Braidotti, R. (2006). Transpositions: On Nomadic Ethics. Cambridge: Polity Press. Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1988). A Thousand Plateaus. London: Anthlone Press LTD. Faludi, S. (2006). Backlash: the undeclared war against American women . New York : Three Rivers Press . Gedalof, I. (2000). Identity in Transit: Nomads, Cyborgs and Women, . The European Journal of Women's Studies, 7, 3, , 337-354. Grinberg, R., & Grinberg, L. (1989). Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Migration and Exile. New Haven: Yale University Press. Kaminer, W. (1993, October 1). Feminism's Identity Crisis. Retrieved April 28, 2013, from The Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1993/10/feminisms-identity-crisis/304921/ Karpinski, E. C. (1999). Development of a Transnational Feminist Consciousness . In A. Heitlinger, Émigré Feminism: Transnational Perspectives (pp. 17-30). Toronto: University of Toronto Press Incorporated. Lerner, J. (n.d.). Lines of Flight. Retrieved May 5 , 2013, from Josh Lerner: http://www.linesofflight.net/linesofflight.htm


107

Levit, N. (1998). The Gender Line. New York: New York University press. McDowell, L. (2003). Place and Space. In M. Eagleton, A Concise Companion to Feminist Theory (pp. 11-31). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. McNay, L. (2000). Gender and Agency. Cambridge: Polity Press in association with Blackwell Publishing. Mortensen, E. (2003). Touching Thought: Ontology and Sexual Difference . Oxford : Lexington Books. Said, E. (2001). Reflections on Exile and Other Essays. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Vrasidas, C., & Glass, G. V. (2002). Distance education and distributed learning. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Pub.


108

PROBLEMATIZING SOCIAL SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE OF COLONIALISM ON POST-COLONIAL THEORIES

Ruhi Can Alkin, MSc. University of Southampton, Sociology and Social Policy Division, United Kingdom

Abstract In this study, historical and sociological discourse of colonialist movements will be

critically analyzed by referring post-colonial theories. In doing so, it is proposed to shed light on the process of colonialism, its reason, consequences and impact on colonialized territories in the light of social science discipline. In order to generate a systematic study, the issue problematized will be examined in an historical approach. That is why, the text will include some sub-titles that might show the development and status of colonialist discourse in social science (and specifically sociology) literature. After that, some deconstructive theories on colonialist discourse will be mentioned in consideration of new/contrary arguments on race and culture. At the end of the study, Orientalizm as one of the well-known colonialist discourse of Western dominance will be discussed. This paper doesn’t propose to give detailed information on colonialist movements in an historical context. It, rather, proposes to underline the Western view of the World and movements on colonialized countries encouraged by these view. That is why, throughout the stud, modern Western theories will be attributed to colonialist approaches and actions.

Keywords: Colonialism, post-colonialism, orientalism, post-colonialist discourse Introduction

It should be noted that this paper is not a historical review on colonialist policies and movements. It mainly aims at exploring the traces of modernity on colonialist ideas and movements, instead. In other words, instead of exploring the colonization process of some countries, theoretical background of colonialist idea, which is produced by modern philosophy and sociology, will be explored. Then, criticisms and deconstructive theories against dominant discourse of colonialism will be outlined.

In the first part, some philosophers who define and explain ‘society’ in a philosophical contest will be examined. By mentioning them, it is planned to illustrate the relationship between their theories on social contract and formations of modern discourse. Locke, Rousseau and Hobbes, in this respect, will dominate this section. This part actually aims at showing the origins of Western domination on social science and origins of colonialist movements in terms of social contract and the concept of ‘necessity’.

Second part will mainly deal with classical sociology, which could be attributed to studies and arguments of early period sociologist such as Marx, Weber and Durkheim. Durkheim, for example, will be mentioned in relation to his studies on religion. Weber, on the other hand, focuses on a tradition in Christianity, will be discussed in order to illustrate the origins and forms of modern capitalism. Lastly, Marx, who always refers to past by analyzing economic relationships, especially slaver and feudal Europe, and capitalism, which demonstrates itself in 19th century, will be examined. Especially history of capitalism that interprets every society in terms of class struggle (Marx & Engels 1967, p.79) will be questioned.


109

Western way of thinking and ignorance of non-Western or non-positivistic knowledge will be shown as “the ‘channels’ in which externalization produces an objective world” (Berger & Luckmann 2009, p.51). By doing so, intervention on knowledge and history by modern/classical sociology will be clarified. This will bring the study to ideals of colonialist perspective and movements.

After the section touches upon colonial policies and their relationship by classical sociology and positivist approach, post-colonial studies which criticize the definitions of West, non-West, race, ethnicity, religion, etc. will be explained as the fourth and the main part of this study. By doing so, modern sociology will be problematized by focusing on post-colonialist studies.

Last part will question Orientalism as modernist interpretation way of East by West and as the literature that reveals some methodological and cultural problems. This literature will be attributed to post-colonial studies, as well. Formation of Dominant Sociological Perspectives in Europe

It is possible to find the origins of sociology in the studies of some thinkers who contributed to philosophy by their theories. These theories are based on the notions of social contract and human nature. Shortly, Hobbes asserts that people who live together need an authority in order to sustain their existence (Gauthier 2000). In the absence of an authority, humans cannot be able to satisfy their needs and provide a healthy togetherness. Because of this obligation, he offers the idea of state as a regulatory power over individuals for their needs and sustainable social life (Delanty 2000). Locke, on the other hand, pays attention to private property, which leads people to make a contract with an institution (Delanty 2000). Lastly; Rousseau claims that people, who were born into society as free, get chained in the socialization process. To decrease the restriction and to live safely in society, people share their power with others, so freedom is provided by an authority that is set up by a social contract (Delanty 2000). As you shall see, the notion of social contract idealizes a relationship between individuals and society by suggesting both authoritarian and libertarian background. These also bring us to confrontational and functionalist approach. Socio-political base of 19thcentury’s Western societies appears at this point. It prepares an infrastructure for sociology as an independent science. That is why; it is not a coincidence that foundation of sociology is addressed with progression of modernity in 19th century. This socio-political base of modernity prepares a criterion model that recognizes progression model in the West and basically, Enlightenment process is the elementary form of perspectives that shapes the modern social sciences (Hall 2006). Modern Sociology and Foundations of ‘Reasons’ for Post-Colonial Studies

When looking at Durkheim’s studies such as Division of Labour in Society (1997) and Rules of Sociological Methodology (1938), it is possible to discover some traces of social contract. Division of labour and new solidarity type, which is organic one, could refer to a contractual situation. Sociology, in this respect becomes a key element for this contract in Durkheim’s view. For him, as a positive science, sociology should emphasize and cure the crises that emerged in Europe during the modernity period (Pope 2008). If it is remembered that modernity is problematized by sociologist in terms of major changings, sociology appears as an endeavour on European social life, which witnesses a new sociological background. Durkheim’s position, in this respect, seems not only to theorize a new sort of social contract, but also draw a picture for current situation in modernity.

When Durkheim maintains his works, he benefits from the positivist methodology, which tends to explain social phenomena under the rules of natural science and searches for absolute correlation between them. As in Suicide: a sociological study (1952), in general, Durkheim emphasizes a scientific result between suicide rates and social anomie. This


110

positivistic tendency could be observed in various theories released in 19th century. Perhaps, it wouldn’t be wrong to assert that positivism was one of the unavoidable elements of prevailing paradigm, which is explained by Kuhn (1996), for social science. And perhaps Durkheim was, as a modern time sociologist, interested in abstract notions by attributing them positivist-secular perspective when explaining the relationship between social phenomena. For instance, in his study about elementary forms of religious life, he claims that religion, which is made by individuals in social groups, is an institution that keeps society together, feeds common sense and adapts the society to external conditions by setting up a custom (Lukes 1973). At this point, we can see a general approach demonstrated by modernist perspectives. Even religion could be examined in terms of a social need, and religious phenomena could be based only on sociological perspectives. Durkheim’s assertion creates a similarity between primitive religions and religions in modern period (Lukes 1973). In addition, religion is an empirical phenomenon that is understood as “a unified system of beliefs and practices” (Wallace & Hartley 1988, p.98). Durkheim, as a theoretician of Europe where secularism arises day by day, emphasizes religion as an observable social institution.

Marx, on the other hand, approaches historical progression in terms of two main classes, which are bourgeois and proletariat (Marx & Engels 1967). History of humanity testifies the struggle between two classes and 19th century’s capitalism, which is seen in Europe, illustrates the most obvious competition. In relation to the main argument of this paper, Marx argues that capitalism has to survive by distributing itself outside of Europe. That is why, colonialist movements, which will be mentioned below, are inevitable consequences of capitalism (Hall 1994). This perspective seems to be a theoretical approval of colonialist movements in non-Western world. Even though Marx is a theorist who thinks and writes against capitalism, the argument about inevitability separates the world into two parts, West and non-West, in terms of progression and diffusion of capitalism. The last thing about Marxist theory will be mentioned here is his argumentation regarding Asian countries’ production and consumption style. Shortly and superficially, “Asiatic-type societies, he argues, cannot develop into modern ones because they lack certain preconditions. Therefore, only the introduction of dynamic elements of western capitalism can trigger development” (Hall 1994, p.316). For a general evaluation, Marx partly constitutes his theory by determining the boundaries of West and non-West.

The last classical sociologist plays a role in this section is Max Weber. Even though Weber’s theories and scientific methodology seems different from those of Marx and Durkheim, because of some of his arguments, we can count him as a sociologist who constitutes the identification of West and non-West. Basically, his analysis on rationalism and theorization of capitalism in terms of Protestant ethic gives some clues about his idealization in favour of Western societies and modernist approach.

Even though Weber is a theorist who opposes evolutionary theses on history and social life, he attributes formation of modernity and functions of modern institutions to rational action as a typology of the period (Roth 1985). It could be noticed that rationalism refers to an evolution observed in Western societies and institutions. The historical and religious outline of rationalism that was propounded by Weber disregards other religions and cultures. In the process of capitalism and modernity, Weber, for example, doesn’t mention Islam (Hall 1996). In Weber’s view, in this respect, if there is a society or organization which is defined as rational, it must include the reflections of Protestantism.

Secondly, and in combination with rationalism, definitions of capitalism by Weber brings us to another West-oriented approach as regards modern World. Weber theorizes “ethic of a religious belief and spirit of an economic system” (Luethy 1970, p.124) in a historical relationship rather than evolutionary explanations. Most importantly, Weber claims that thanks to obvious productivity, rational-modern capitalism performs the most progressive system that humanity has created so far (Giddens 1971). At this point, similarity among two


111

classical sociologists might be observed. Even though Weber emphasizes religious affect and give importance to rational action in the formation of capitalism (Munch 1988), he claims a progression on historical process when explaining this economic system just like Marx did. This point also gives some clues about theoreticians of modernity and their similar points of views.

To sum up, Enlightenment process and formation of knowledge prepares an atmosphere for Western studies. Major novelties in Western Europe direct thinkers to explain this situation in historical base and history of society/humanity is written according to expectations and movements of Western-capitalist societies. Even some theoreticians such as Marx and proponents, who oppose rising and spreading of capitalism, release their theories according to progressive perspective. This approach is one of the starting points that pushes thinkers to focus on post-colonial studies. As it will be seen in next section, the main objection of post-colonial studies derives from West oriented or/and integrative nature of modern sociology over humanity. General Evaluation Regarding Post-Colonial Studies and Their Origins in Sociology

Theoretically, post-colonialism is a process that objects to the assumption of understanding cultural practices of various cultures from a colonialist perspective. More broadly, it keeps “a variety of practices, performed within a range of disciplinary fields in a multitude of different institutional locations around the globe” (Moore-Gilbert 1997, p.5). It holds deterritorialisation and decentralisation of cultures around location or place (Grossberg 1996). Post-colonial studies have been attributed to marginalized groups such as women, homo-sexual, lesbian, cultural and ethnic groups (Gandhi 1998) that are omitted by Western history. However, a more general perspective might be drawn by looking at the meeting of Western countries with non-Western cultures after geographical explorations. Briefly, in 16th century, West came into close contact with ‘other’, settled down near them, and learned living like a native and by the help of technology, they started to rule the countries they had discovered. In time, because they were motivated by the ambition of wealth and domination, they did not hesitate to benefit the technological and material supplements of colonialized countries (Parekh, 1997). Moreover, colonized groups or people are expected to get used to life style of colonialist country and to become “whither” (Fanon 2009, p.338) day by day. However, this process has been defined by Western resources in a peaceful way. Utilizing from non-Western countries by exploiting their resources, their own sources, is hidden under the discourse of ‘helping non-Western countries to improve themselves economically and politically’. Especially authoritarian and definitive texts regarding human history produce supremacy for West over the rest of the World (Gandhi 1998). As an intellectual attempt, colonialist texts had been fed by journalism and authors who wrote their memories (Moore-Gilbert 1997). This is the main point where post-colonial objections rise. Edward Said, who is one of the most important thinkers of Orientalism, criticizes representational assertion of colonialism over non-Western regions and it is addressed by Said as being a totalising and unified reading of imperialism (Gandhi 1998, p.77). Post-colonial studies, in this respect, could be seen epistemological, ideological and methodological opposition against modernist/colonial discourse. In other words, t post-colonial studies are the process of taking notice of others, which is the one of the elementary rules of social life (Shilling & Mellor 2001). Post-colonialism, at this point, is defined as salvation from the colonial syndrome (Hall 1996). This syndrome, for a sense, is based on a distinction, emphasized by philosophers, artists, politicians and political theorists, administrators, economists, etc. who rule colonial geographies (Said 2006). They were, interestingly, not doubtful about the superiority of European culture and even European race over non-Europeans (Parekh 1997). For this reason, hegemonic role of inter-disciplinary endeavour of colonialism over colonialized cultures and territory should be considered. This general sight could remind us of modernity and its


112

hegemonic structure over non-Western societies. It wouldn’t be wrong to assert that post-colonial studies are a discrediting process against the project of European Enlightenment (Loomba 1998).

Now, perspectives of classical sociologists, Weber, Marx and Durkheim, and formation of sociological thought could be revived. It is obvious that “during the period of colonial expansion Europe had at least three influential thought that were committed to the ideals of human unity, equality, freedom…” and additionally “Christianity, Liberalism… and Marxism from the last few decades of 19th century onwards” (Parekh 1997, p.173). Briefly, rationalization process drawn by Weber shows itself in colonialist approach. Modern age represents a definite rational mechanism. Marxism, interestingly, seems another reference point for colonialist movement by suggesting Asiatic type production and societies and their insufficient economic run. That is why, it could be confirmed that “both Weber and Marx organize their arguments in terms of broad, simple, contrasting oppositions which mirror quite closely the West-Rest, civilized-rude, developed-backward opposition…” (Hall 1994, p.316). Lastly, post-colonial studies both refuses and enlarges the idea of solidarity in Durkheim’s point of view by suggesting a new international division of labour regarding de-centralization of capitalism and information technologies (Hall 1996). Post-colonial studies not only seem as an opposition against classical sociologists of modern time, but they also object to philosophers of early modern period who illustrated the idea of absolute human nature and social contract. This will be detailed in the next sections. Re-discovering Race and Culture

Previous part reminded that every step taken by West over non-Western geography refers to modernist and western idealization process. Gandhi, Parekh, Loomba and the others tend to illustrate the implementations regarding colonialism by emphasizing past and today. Actually, their studies are automatically named post-colonial studies. That is why; when classifying texts regarding post-colonialism, we could mainly observe the notion of race, cultural studies and Orientalism. All of these emerge from an objection against the project of modernity and spreading modern civilization over the non-Western areas of the World. In this part, subjects mentioned in previous statement will be examined specifically.

First of all, post-colonial studies highly refer cultural studies and the notion of race. As Bhabha (2006, p.221) extracted from Foucault, race, which sets up a historical temporality, is suggested by Western civilization as being an indicator of superiority of White Westerns and it creates a colonial metropolis. This emphasizes an omission process of non-Western cultures. Definition of them is subjected under the eyes of West. The same West has the power to use the technology, science and hegemonic discourse. This priority leads non-Western to keep racist approach in modern period. For some post-colonialist thinkers such as Bhabha (2006) racism is not only specific conception of aristocracy that emerges from Europe, but is also a result of liberal humanism that constitutes ideological aspiration under an imagined community. Besides socio-political interpretation, science is used by West in order to contribute to race and racism. As Loomba (1998) indicated, some anatomic structure of human body such as nose, hair style, skin colour, head bone, etc. had been cited as the most accurate differences when distinguishing races in favour of Western types. Moreover, because of their social and psychical belonging to West, Western scientists, who produce dominant knowledge, couldn’t criticize the scientific ‘facts’ about the supremacy of Western races. In addition, knowledge produced by non-Western origins had been refused as being non-scientific (Loomba 1998). This is one of the main reasons that make the people of colonialized geography alienated. As Spivak states (1999) scientific studies that support the dominant trend caused a failure of self-cognition over the colonized geography and produces people alienated to their own culture. Additionally, it is remarkable that post-colonial studies regarding alienation also remark local resources and materials used colonialist power. In here,


113

there is a combination between locality and Western ideas that are used in order to benefit from colonialized lands and cultures (Loomba 1998). To sum up, exploitation maintained by West on colonialized areas is not only seen on natural resources, but is seen on local elements and culture. Orientalism as a Basic Element of Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Literature

Briefly, Orientalism is “[W]estern style of dominating, re-structuring, and having authority over Orient” (Said Harlow & Carter 1999, p.49). As you might see, it is one of the basic elements of colonial discourse and settlement over Eastern countries. Studies about orientalism, on the other hand, reflect post-colonial approaches and criticisms on colonialist movement. That is why; it could be seen as a political or historical discipline.

Just like the other elements of colonialism, Orientalism divides the earth into two parts: West and East. In the literature of Orientalism, East or Orient is conceptualized instead of non-West. Moreover, Orient (or the other part of Earth) seems more active than the image of non-West. Orient helps to define Europe itself by the help of images, cultural staff, language, etc. of other. In relation to this, for an Orientalist, East is also an integral part of Western civilization that should be domesticated and ruled by West (Said 2006). East, in this respect, is re-constituted and re-discovered both as a territory and as a culture from the view point of West. Hence, we can claim that Orientalism is an extensive narrative regarding East in the light of modernization and Westernization. This brings Bhabha’s (2006, p.133) “story metaphor” into the mind, which explains the formation of dominant modernist thought. However, in terms of Orientalist settlement, modernist story changes its contact area by heading towards Eastern territory.

Besides narration and diffusion maintained by West, Said’s assertion regarding Orientalism moves one step further and reminds Foucault’s (2006, p. 25) studies about modernization process:

“Without examining Orientalism as a discourse, one connot possibly understand the enormously systematic discipline by which European culture was able to manage –and even produce- the Orient politically, sociologically, militarily, ideologically, scientifically, and imaginatively during the post-Enlightenment period”.

Foucault illustrates the relationship between colonialist movements and Orientalist approach. Colonies over the Earth are ruled not only by guns, but also politics and epistemological hegemony created by multi-disciplinary approach. It refers to Hobbes’s main argument regarding social contract mentioned earlier in this study. Accordingly, societies assign a regulatory power (which was Leviathan in Hobbes’ argument) in order to organize the society for a peaceful atmosphere. In Orientalist context, Leviathan replaces colonialist powers on Earth. East, which is not able to use their resources efficiently and cannot organize their social life properly, is managed by West.

Orientalism as a historical discipline holds many different aspects such as journalism, mystification, etc. Additionally, Islam is taken as an issue by Orientalist literature in terms of being a cultural organization. As Nash (2009) extracted from Farrukh, even the most tolerant non-Muslim writers on Islam perceive this religion as a process of civilization, cultural or social organization and prophet of Islam could be a leader, a role model or an authority, but not a real prophet. This extreme example could help us to think the limits of Orientalism. In addition to recent studies, Durkheim’s Intrinsic Forms of Religious Life study could be remembered. In his study, Durkheim asserts that religion is not something which is created supernaturally, but it is a social institution produced by society (Jones 1986). This could provide further evidence about the relationship between modernist thought and colonial discourse. In addition to ontological discourse on Islam, Orientalist approach expects Islam to adapt itself into the Modern world by using materials, ideas and life styles of West. Even


114

European Muslim Communities question that whether Muslim’s beliefs and practices are transforming into the Western style (Peter 2006). Conclusion

In the light of the literature created by philosophers and classical sociologists who idealized a) knowledge, b) historical progression of societies by glorifying Westernization, it is not very difficult to see a dominant discourse leads colonialist powers to act as the masters of the rest of the world. Of course, this is not just because of the studies or encouragements on sociology, social philosophy or any theoretical explanation. However, sociological and political perspectives could give some clues about the origins of massive exploitation and massacre sustained over the colonialized countries. That is why, modernism, which is one of the main subjects of sociology, is not just a civilization process of Western countries. It, in this respect, shows itself as a reference point for colonialist countries. Every single notion and revised editions of the other notions such as ‘rationalism’, ‘scientific knowledge’, ‘Protestantism’, ‘progression’, evolution’, etc. serves colonialism. In this study, this long process was tried to be show this long process. Post-colonialist studies have been partly examined by only mentioning culture, race and religion. Of course, there are much more basics and operation area of colonialism. Post-colonialist studies could be attributed to the other reference points such as women studies, hybridity, gay-lesbian studies, etc. However, in order to correlate modernism and post-colonial studies, it has been preferred to choose race, culture and prevailing discourse of modernity.

Lastly, if we remember that we are living in a post-colonial era, it could be distinguished that colonialism refers to “was” and post-co/lonialism focuses on “is” (Hall 1996, p.247). That is why post-colonial studies not only deal with colonialist movements in past, but also emphasize current situation on colonialized countries of the past. Criticizing modernity feeds ‘is’, which indicates that history is not a one way line. However, for social scientists, it shouldn’t be forgotten that “[T]he processes of modernization are not unidirectional and irreversible” and “[T]here is not an objective set of values that define in an absolute sense what is modern…” (Tiryakian 1992, p.82). References: Berger, Peter, and Luckmann, Thomas. ‘The Social Construction of Reality’ in Contemporary Sociological Theory. Calhoun, C., Gerteis, J., Moody, J., Pfaff, S & Virk, I. ed, 2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 43-51, 2009. Bhabha, Homi.‘Race, Time and The Revision of Modernity’ in The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G., and Tiffin, H. ed, 2nd edition. Oxford: Routledge, 132-134. 2006. Delanty, Gerard. ‘The Foundations of Social Theory’ in The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory. Turner, B. S. ed, 2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 21-46, 2000. Durkheim, Emile. Rules of Sociological Method, Trans. by: Sarah A. Solvay and John H. Muller. Glencoe: Free Press, 1938. --- Suicide: a study in sociology, Trans, by: John Spaulding & George Simpson. Oxford: Routledge, 1952. --- Division of Labour in Society, Trans. by: Lewis A. Coser. New York: Free Press, 1964. Fanon, Frantz. ‘Black Skin, White Masks’ in Contemporary Sociological Theory. Calhoun, C., Gerteis, J., Moody, J., Pfaff, S & Virk, I., 2nd Edition. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 337-345, 2009. Gandhi, Leela. Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction. Edinburgh: Enginburgh University Press, 1998. Giddens, Anthony. Capitalism and modern social theory: An analysis of the writings of Marx, Durkheim and Max Weber. London: Cambridge University Press, 1971.


115

Hall, Stuart. (1994) ‘The West and The Rest: Discourse and Power’ in Formations of Modernity. Hall, S. & Gieben, B. ed. Cambridge: Polity Press, 275-332, 1994. ---‘When was the ‘post-colonial’? Thinking at the limit’ in The Post-Colonial Question: Common Skies Divided Horizons, Chambers, I. & Curti, L. ed. London: Routledge, 242-260, 1996. --- ‘Induction’ in Modernity: an introduction to modern societies. Hall, S., Held, D., Hubert, D., And Thompson, K. ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 1-18, 2006. Harlow, Barbara, and Carter, Mia. Imperialism & Orientalism: A Documentary Sourcebook. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1999. Jones, Robert. Emile Durkheim: An introduction to Four Major Works. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1986. Kuhn, Thomas. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 3rd edition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1996. Loomba, Ania. Colonialism/Postcolonialism: A new critical idiom. London: Routledge, 1998. Lukes, Steven. Emile Durkheim His Life and Work: A Historical and Critical Study. London: Allen Lane the Penguin Press, 1973. Lüthy, Herbert. ‘Once Again: Calvinism and Capitalism’ in Max Weber. Wrong, D. H. ed. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 123-134, 1970. Marx, Karl, and Engels, Friedrich. The Communist Manifesto. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1967. Moore-Gilbert, Bart. Postcolonial Theory: Contexts, Practices, Politics. London: Verso, 1997. Münch, Richard. Understanding Modernity: Toward a new perspective going beyond Durkheim and Weber. London: Routledge, 1988. Nash, Geoffrey. ‘Literary Orientalism: A companion’ (Review) in The Byron Journal, 37 (2), Parekh, Bhiku. ‘The West and its Others’ in Cultural Readings of Imperialism: Edward Said and the Gravity of History. Pearson, K. A., Parry, B. & Squires, J. ed. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 173-193, 1997. Peter, Frank. ‘Individualization and Religious Authority in Western European Islam’ in Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations. 17 (1), 105-118, 2006. Pope, Whitney. ‘Emile Durkheim’ in Key Sociological Thinkers. Stones, R. ed. 2nd edition, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 76-89, 2008. Roth, Gunther. ‘Introduction’ in Weber’s Protestant Ethic: Origins, Evidence, Contexts. Lehman, H. & Roth, G. ed. Washington D.C.: Cambridge University Press, 1-26, 1993. Said, Edward. ‘Orientalism’ in The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G., and Tiffin, H. ed, 2nd edition. Oxford: Routledge, 24-27, 2006. Shilling, Chris, and Mellor, Philip. The Sociological Ambition. London: Sage Publication, Spivak, Gayrati. ‘Subaltern Studies: Deconstructing Historiography’ in Contemporary Social Theory. Elliott, A. ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 244-256, 1997. Tiryakian, Edward. ‘Pathways to Metatheory: Re-thinking the Presuppositions of Macrosociology’ in Metatheorizing. Ritzer, G. ed. London: Sage Publications, 69-87, 1992. Wallace, Ruth., & Hartley, Shirley. ‘Religious elements in friendship: Durkheimian theory in an empirical context’ in Durkheimian sociology: cultural studies. Alexander, J.C. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 93-108, 1988.


116

FLOOD MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN PAKISTAN

Zarmina, A., PG Student MCE (NUST), Pakistan

S.H. Farooq., Associate Prof. MCE (NUST), Pakistan

Naeem,S., Assiatant Prof. MCE (NUST),Pakistan

Abstract Pakistan is prone to disasters and these disasters altogether cannot be stopped;

however, their ill effects can be minimized through a pragmatic (Flood Management System). Year 2010 witnessed the unprecedented floods in Pakistan, which rose to the highest levels in the recorded history. Thereby, preparation in Disaster Management is a compulsion rather than a choice. The paper mainly focus on contours/underpinnings of flood 2010, however, cardinal aspects of role of various stake holders have been incorporated in the working paper. The data has been acquired through various sources to include reports, online databases, and policy document as result to analyze the overall scenario of the country and the provinces as well. Both the secondary/primary data and information has been used to understand existing flood management system of Pakistan in purview of Floods-2010, with a view to recommend suitable measures The analysis revealed that flood management requires deliberation both at national and local level. The decentralized mode of operation should be adapted from national to regional level in order to follow an integrated framework for bringing all stakeholders and victims together for developing an organized management system. The aim is to carry out analysis of existing flood management system of Pakistan in purview of Floods 2010, with a view to recommend suitable measures to enhance flood management capacity in Pakistan.

Keywords: Disaster, PDMA, DDMA, Stakeholders, Contingency planning Introduction

Year 2010 witnessed the unprecedented floods in Pakistan, which rose to the highest levels in the recorded history. Eastern and Western weather system supplemented each other in a manner which caused unprecedented precipitation in North-Western parts of country. The disaster management authorities at national and provincial levels were neither configured nor capable to match such a mega disaster. Particularly, Sindh underwent greatest devastation of communication infrastructure, loss of life and private damages. Civil governments too being unaccustomed to such disasters could not initiate timely response. Though the procedure for disaster management functioning exists but still it could not generate coordinated efforts to manage these properly. Barriers of the Existing Disaster Management Functions

The causes which hindered the existing disaster management functioning specially between NDMA and PDMAs are highlighted as under: Disaster Management Capacity.

At multiple levels of government the disaster management capacity has been found limited. However, an extreme lack of resources did not allow NDMA at federal level to deal well with flood disaster. In addition to that the non-availabilty of the legislated authority was


117

observed to perform the activities of Disaster management authority such as PDMA or DDMA. PDMAs. A noticeable deficiency of competence/capacity for flood relief resources at the provincial level was detected. There were only few trainees from the government or disaster management authorities for operations and organization; the province Sindh was of great concern. Surge Capacity due to Lack of Resources

For the attainment of properly trained surge capacity organizations like Pre-disaster structures will always be lean and small on their part. The floods 2010-2011were managed by a team of about 21 officers only deployed by NDMA for the entire disaster. Any additional personnel or equipment was not supported because of the meager budget of Rs 65 million (approx. $ US 0.74 million) per annum as per the records of NDMA .However, NDMA continued positive of USAID/OFDA’s support in making available needed funding to cover some critical gaps atleast. Purposely to develop a much-needed surge capacity, government ministries were requested for services of experienced manpower, but in vain. Regrettably, except for the Armed Forces, no other government ministry and department provided worthwhile assistance. Lack of Coordination Establishing a link with respect to coordination is the core aspect of all the phases of management at all levels and tiers; may it be inter departmental or intra departmental; organizational, provincial or government level; community in general as well. A highlight of the issues was marked by the stakeholders between NDMA and the PDMAs. Implications of 18th Constitutional Amendment

Significant challenges have been posed between the centre and the provinces as a result of the Implications arising from the recently enacted ‘18th constitutional amendment’ and the latest NFC Award. As a result the former decentralized many federal or concurrent federal and provincial legislative subjects, including disaster management, to the provinces also. This entire scenario has aroused substantial obstacles in building a centrally organization and cohesive national response to the disaster and led to the exacerbation of centre-province stresses. Parallel Decision Making Confusions about the mandates were generated by Parallel decision making body, which demands immediate attention as a remedial measure. NDMC is the apex body for disaster related policy formulation in Pakistan with representation from centre, all federating units and areas of the country, military and civil society as per the National Disaster Management Act. In addition, the stakeholders were confused about the consideration of the key body for relief efforts by shifting the of responsibility from NDMC to the Council of Common Interests (CCI) and the formation of the National Oversight Disaster Management Council (NODMC). The decision making process for stakeholders was decelerated and perceived duplication of authority was created as a result of robust government oversight of relief, recovery and reconstruction activities which is of utmost importance. Inadequate Planning

Disaster management mechanism of governments still lacks institutional maturity and required potency of prior planning and coordination. Aspect of forehand planning at


118

provincial / district level is found missing, due to which disjointed response from government machinery and public was observed. Availability of Correct Information for Consumption of UN and NGOs

NDMA lacked timely dissemination of getting the appropriate and relevant information despite of all the efforts. As an outcome decision making remained a problem for the planners at National level. UN agencies had a vital role to play in this regard but they were also constrained by internal procedures that frequently delayed relief of available information. Conflicting number and less sampling methodology made analysis and resource required calculation difficult. There was required to display more flexibility in decision making at UN HQ level conforming to urgencies of ground realities. Civil / Military / NGOs Coordination The civil and military stakeholders intervention in an emergency is mandatory for a successful response. In Flood-2010, the relationship between the civil and military seconds was positive and cooperative inbetween. However, there was a lack of clarity on some issues with regard to sharing of information between the military and humanitarian community that needs to be resolved in future disasters to avoid overlapping and duplication in distribution of relief goods. Other issues that arose related to the ‘last resort’ guideline for use of military assets, and the use of armed escorts for NGOs. Media Management

The ‘media’ was focused on criticizing the government and highlight poor management in the early period of emergency. This detracted from the impetus to contribute to the relief efforts by the public and donors. While such undue politicization of the relief efforts was considerably damaging in the short run, the sit improved with passage to time and media sensitized gen public for volunteer contributions and launched their own relief efforts in various forms and different areas. Media has immense potentials which can be exploited for overall better flood management. Miscellaneous Aspects

Integration between Government, NGOs and Volunteer Groups. Framing up of the Procedures and organizations of the systems is at the top most priority to prevent confusion and ensure best utilization of the assistance being offered. In this regard, close cooperation between the Government, NGOs and volunteer groups for relief and rescue efforts is a necessity. Rejuvenation of Civil Defence Organization Civil Defence, being a redundant organisation at present, needs to be injected with appropriate resources. This should be developed on the lines of UK model of Emergency Management Agency (EMA) at each district. Role of Media. Media needs to play a proactive role to effectively portray the disaster to the masses and international community thereby generating a positive and forthcoming response both at home and at international front. At the same time, the media must counter the subversive propaganda intended at maligning the Government for gaining of political mileage by few. Database

NCMC and PCMCs must maintain database in the shape of Global Information System (GIS) for all existing resources in the province down to district level. This step will present a fair picture in terms of likely requirement vis-à-vis available assets.


119

Information and Communication The important aspect is that there should be communication between civil agencies

and the military through line, wireless and data link. Provincial data through NADRA and other departments must be available to all for dissemination through military channels if needed to concerned areas. Up dated data needs to be available at the site of any disaster and this must include all relevant data such as civilian debris removal capacities and local medical facilities available and so on. For this purpose a nationwide internet based resource should be available for access through military channels. Contingency Planning Planning must include response as part of the national effort in three segments of the disaster cycle that is ‘warning’, ‘event’ and ‘response’. This would be stage wise:- Warning and initial response – lead agency Event including initial assessment– lead agency Response including rescue, evacuation and initial relief – lead agency transiting to supportive role. Damage Assessment

There are two aspects to damage assessment. Initial assessment is for rescue and evacuation and subsequent is for a viable sec ph response involving longer term measure mostly in the domain of national response. For initial assessment there is a need to have trained individuals who are part of the Corps Rescue Teams assisted by aviation, Corps UAV resources and through data link with satellite resources as well. Aviation Assets

One of the major shortcoming that has come to light has been the shortage of aviation assets especially helicopters for transportation of personnel and logistics to far flung areas. This needs to be addressed as dependence on helicopter transport is high in any disaster related scenario where damage to infrastructure is more than likely. Conclusion

The response and performance of the nation in disaster relief operations can improve manifolds if we can capitalize on our experience of past disasters that we have been through. Though a new Natural Disaster Management sys is in place in Pakistan that is intricate, detailed and will prove to be responsive. At the same time the role of the military will in any future disaster be high profile and very vital to the lives and safety of our citizens. This is in keeping with global trends towards OOTW (operations other than war) and a major shift in the role of militaries that has taken place, Worldwide. Recommendations

In order to enhance flood management capacity of Pakistan, following is recommended:- In the light of 18th amendment of Constitution of Pakistan, consensus must be built among federal and provincial governments as regards to lead coordination role of NDMA in disaster management.

To further strenghten the National Disaster Management Act a; comprehensive review of it is essential. Also the provision of mandates with complete clarity, roles and responsibilities of NDMA, PDMAs and DDMAs and all relevant state actors is the need of the hour. Proper resourcing of NDMA and PDMAs should be done through sufficient staff, funding and allocation of equipment. In this regard, government ministries and agencies


120

should be asked to spare officers and staff for secondment to NDMA, till the time it does not dev its own manpower pool.

DDMAs need to allocate dedicated personnel and equipment for the strengthening at district level as well as aligning them with the ‘Revenue Department’ that has visibility down to the village level to ensure organizational and managerial measures to the grass root level. DDMA / District administrators may devise category plans for disasters like floods and earthquakes, which should be shared with Army units earmarked for disaster management. / flood relief in the area. The plans may include:-

Schools / colleges may be earmarked in peace time for established of ‘Relief Camps’ immediately after disaster / flood.

Rat items and other relief goods for at least 3 x days for planned capacity must be staked for any category.

Evacuation drills on area basis may be devised and including in public awareness programs.

Vast potentials of media with regard to instant mob of public sentiment and opinion must be harnessed and used in disasters like floods. In this regard, a dynamic and working relationship may be established with print and electronic media, which may play positive role in times of emergency.

Category plans must be formulated at Engineer Directorate level, whereby Flood Rescue / Relief resources can be immediate shifted from one province to another at the time of emergency. Such resources must be earmarked in peace time Flood Relief Schemes of respective formations. References: Draft Guidelines for Civil Military Coordination in Pakistan, March 2010. Response to Floods-2010 (UN-HABITAT). National Disaster Response Plan (NDRP), March 2010, NDMA. NDMO 2007 (www.ndma.gov.pk). ‘Pakistan Floods’ an Information Bulletin by IRC and IRCS, August 2008. (adpc) www.adpc.net. ‘World Disaster Report WDR-2012’ (www.ifrc.org). Jennifer McKay (Army Hilal Magazine, August 2012). ‘Pakistan 2010 Flood Relief – Learning from Experiences’ a report for NDMA by Jennifer McKay and Coauthored by Ammar Rashid and Zeeshan Noel. April 2011, www.ndma.gov.pk.


121

SEX, EMPLOYMENT STATUS AND THE LABOUR FORCE CONTRIBUTION OF POLYTECHNICS GRADUATES

Abam Arikpo, PhD Department of Curriculum and Teaching, Faculty of Education, University of Calabar

Abstract The purpose of this study is to find out the influence of sex, employment status and

polytechnics education on labour force contributions of polytechnic graduates. Three null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Sixty (60) Polytechnics graduates who were either male, female, unemployed, self-employed, organized private sector employed or government sector employed were selected for the study, through snow balling and convenience sampling techniques. Five (5) Likert type questionnaires were used to collect data from the both male and female polytechnics graduates. Percentages, t-test, and chi-square statistics were used to analyze data collected at 0.05 alpha level. For the men all the three null hypotheses were rejected; while for women only two were, because calculated χ2 was under these hypotheses greater than critical χ2. The result revealed men to make significantly higher contribution to the national labour force than women. It was recommended conscientization and other androgogical methods be used to promote consciousness raising in the women.

Keywords: Sex, employment status, labour force, contribution Introduction

Polytechnics education is in Nigeria offered in all forms to produce various technologists or technicians considered crucial to the economy and the countries development (Okorie, 2001). Its curriculum includes general education; general technical theory; training in special technical procedure, skill, attitude and related theory designed to produce, reproduce, empower and retrain technicians and technologists for technical sections of industry, agriculture, commerce, and home economics (Okorie, 2001). The National Police on Education (1981), for instance, sets its aims to include: provision of trained manpower in applied science, technology and commerce particularly at major and sub professional grades; provision of technical knowledge and vocational skills necessary for agricultural, industrial, commercial and economic development; provision of people who can apply scientific knowledge to the improvement and resolution of empirical problems to the usefulness and convenience of man; giving of introductory professional studies in engineering and other technology; giving of a training that would impart necessary skills that would lead to the production of craftsmen, technicians and other enterprising and self-reliant skilled personnel; and enabling of young men and women to have an intelligent understanding of the increasing complexity of technology (Ikpe, 2000).

Therefore, according to Osuala (1987), on the general issues of vocational-technical education, the Eric Ashby Commission (1959) advocated: the development of post-secodary school courses for the training of technicians in technical institutes; the taking or offer of such technical courses side-by-side practical occupation training by individuals already in employment; the cooperation of the said technical institution with employers of labour to design short term courses that will produce supervisors and foremen; the running of the


122

technical institutes by an advisory committee made up of representatives of employers of labour; the establishment of a standing conference of technical education by the federal government to facilitate cooperation with government for advice on the need to enlist the interest of employers; the running of full-time, sandwich and part-time day and evening courses by technical institutes to meet the specific demands of the employers of labour on employees or the already employed (Ikpe, 2001).

The advocacies above, Okedara (1989) traces to the fact that, despite increasing industrial production, indigenous technicians were in the 1950’s and 1960’s very scarce. Hence, from 1960, this education which was given by the Yaba Technical Institute, the Enugu Technical Institute, the Kaduna Technical Institute, and Ibadan College of Technology, outside the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology which did same far back 1952 through its branches in Ibadan, Enugu, Zaria, confined itself to professional education and provision of training for civil, mechanical, electrical, and mining engineering; land surveying, pharmacy, accountancy, secretarial studies, fine arts, agriculture and estate management (Okedara, 1984). It end products were to be people with intermediate qualification. This were by the recommendations of the Ashby commission to be 50,000 between 1960-1970; though within this period only 32,648 were produced (Okedara, 1984). Livingstone and Goodall (1970) attribute this rather low turnover to the fact that the colonial system of education left behind after independence gave status to arts than science and technology; and technical institutes and technical colleges were meant at the time for candidates with lower grades of pass in ‘O’ level G.C.E examinations.

Apart from this rather unfortunate situation, Nigerian children of the time had observed the Europeans with arts and social science bias education seat in offices in clean white shirts and suits to give out orders; while those with science or technology, or vocational education laboured and sweated as engineers or agricultural officers in soiled clothing, under steaming bonnets of vehicles and farms. Thus, there was a driving ambition to go for the former and not the latter. The latter could not be envied. So, technical schools, farm institutes, and engineering colleges were neglected (Livingstone & Gvodall, 1970).

Thus from 1977 – 1980 additional manpower requirements in Nigeria showed estimated numbers for technical, scientific, and other professionals and sat professionals, medical professionals, and patricians and craftsmen to be highest. This ofcourse was relative to administrative and management staff, statisticians, jurists, secretarial staff and agricultural staff. The situation is better read from table 1.

Table 1 Additional manpower requirement (1977-1980) Occupational category Estimated number Administrative/managerial staff 15,200 Statisticians/jurists, secretarial staff 15,500 Technical/scientific/other professionals and sat-professionals 40,600 Agricultural staff 12,400 Medical staff 41,200 Articians/craftsmen 76,900 Total 201,800

Source: Background paper for National conference on manpower constituent to Nigeria’s economic development, December 19-22, 1978.

This phenomenon is better explained by table 2. The table, like table 1 reports, as at

1981-1985 the job opportunities for graduates of technical institutes to have been huge. Products of these institutes or institutions could hardly meet the size and quality of required labour.


123

Table 2 Estimated manpower requirement for the forth national development plan (1981-1985) S/N

Category of manpower Estimated current stock 1980

Requirement for meeting existing shortage

Requirement for meeting 1985 employee/population target

Requirement for meeting wastage 1980-1985

Additional requirement 1980-1985

1 Architects 650 620 860 50 880 2 Accountants 6,000 2,650 8,500 465 5,615 3 Town planners 300 350 400 25 475 4 Civil and structural

engineer 4,000 4,700 6,000 310 7,010

5 Builder 300 240 500 25 475 6 Electrical and electronic

engineers 3,500 2,070 5,000 270 3,840

7 Agricultural engineers 350 260 600 30 540

8 Land surveyors 600 350 800 50 600 9 Quantity surveyors 400 220 500 30 350 10 Estate surveyors 500 250 690 40 480 11 Geologists and

Geophysicists 450 370 600 35 555

12 Architectural technician 1,080 1,220 1,500 85 1,725

13 Civil engineering 9,800 5,950 12,300 760 9,210 14 Electrical/electronic

engineering technician 10,600 8,060 13,500 825 11,785

15 Medical doctors 8,400 4,830 15,000 650 12,080 16 Dentists 400 286 900 30 816 17 Pharmacists 3,000 1,690 5,000 230 3,920 18 Veteromary 1,000 505 3,000 80 2,585 19 Nurses and mid-wives 50,000 21,430 90,000 3,880 65,310

20 Medical laboratory technologists

1,200 640 4,000 700 3,540

21 Radio graphers 400 190 800 30 620 22 Agricultural assistants 6,300 2,040 10,300 490 6,530

23 Agricultural Office 2,500 1,440 4,000 195 3,135 24 Statiusticians 500 370 500 40 410 25 Administrative office 4,500 2,370 6,500 350 4,720

26 Executive officer 6,800 2,270 10,000 530 6,000 27 Literarians 1,000 850 3,000 80 2,930 28 Legal practitioners 5,650 2,260 8,135 440 5,185

Source: Fourth National Development plan 1981-1985

Tracer’s 1984 study, cited by Oladeji (1994) identified 5.7% of all polytechnic graduates to have employment as at the time they concluded the National Youth Service Corps Scheme (NYSC). A follow-up study showed about three quarters of these graduates (75.6%) to have spent 13-24 months before getting their jobs, while 14% spent well over two years (25-30months). Details of these are reflected in table 3.

Table 3 Distribution of employed polytechnic graduates by length of time spent in search of their jobs Period after graduation

Polytechnic graduates number Percentage (%)

1-12 months 45 31.92 13-25months 84 60.99 25-30 months 10 7.09

Source: National Manpower Board, Lagos: Report of graduate employment trailer study, 1986.

Oguntuanse (1985) blamed the situation on a number of sectors. These were lack of economic growth, absence of industrial expansion and slow pace of technological


124

development. Another was the existence of an education system which was not functionally relevant and appreciable to local needs. However, Traler (1984) in Adayemo (1997) also associates it with lack of capital for employment, whereas Arikpo (2005) attributes it to graduates’ inclination towards government employment opportunities and those of the organized private sector. But Agba (1994) and Yesufu (2000) also identify it with sexism.

The purpose of the study was, therefore, to establish whether sex and any employment status influenced the contribution or participation of polytechnic graduate in the national labour force at the instance of the adversities listed above from about the mid-1980’s to date. This, ofcourse, is subject to the fact that (i) the total labour force in Nigeria was expected to rise from 27.4 million in 1980 to 34.7 million in 1989, implying an annual growth rate of 2.9%, (ii) assuming a constant actively rate of 78.0%, government estimated the labour force strength to be at 32.74 million in its Third National Development Plan, and (iii) the annual growth of the female labour force was, between 1980 and 1989, expected to be higher than that of the males: with 2.9% being for women and 2.6% for men, because of societal modernization and consequent withdrawal from traditional roles at home (Arowolo, 1983).

Apart from the reasons above, there was a Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) from the mid-1980’s. This promoted social mobilization for social justice, self-reliance, and economic emancipation. The vision of the move was to be realized through strategies identified with the introduction of migrant fishermen education, nomadic education, National Board for Technical Education, Nigerian Education Research and Development Council (NERDC), the regional unit for execution of an 180 million distance education network, labour market deregulation policies, affiliation of Nigerian trade unions with the organization of African Trade Unions Unity (OATUU) and International Labour Organization (ILO), establishment of a National Productivity Center (NPC), the establishment of the Directorial of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFFRI). The National Youth Employment and Vocational Skills Development Programme, Small Scale Industrial and Graduates Employment Programme, the Better Life Programme (BLF), Government Own Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Company (NAIC), Agricultural Development Projects (ADPs), River Basin Development Authority (RBDA), National Economic Recovery Fund (NERFUND), Small Holder Farm Credit Scheme (SHFCS), Commercial and Merchant ; Banking, Community and Micro Finance Banking, National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), Technical Committee on Privatization and Commercialization (TCPC), Raw Materials Development Policy, Creation of more States and Local Government Areas, Debt-Equity Swap Programme, Technical Aids Corps, Functional Education for Women, Quota Admission Policy, Family Economic Advancement Programme (FEAP) and Job Creation and Poverty Alleviation Programme (JCPA) (NISER Surveillance Reports, 1991; 1993).The strategies of these entities respectively offered productive marketable skills; short term training on small scale business management skills; an enabling environment that increase rural productive activities in food, agriculture, rural industrialization, technical development and rural house; elimination of poverty and illiteracy or ignorance among rural dwellers especially women; promotion cooperative societies; cottage industries and health care programmes; insurances covers which made supply of agricultural loans from commercial banks more attractive and their disbursement and recovery burden free; care for risk suffered by farmers through price fluctuations associated with agricultural products and produce; provision of portable water for household use and dam and irrigation systems that support farming; establishment of small and medium size industries which strive on locally sourced farming materials; fertilizer procurement and distribution; grants for famers; award of loans from commercial banks and merchant banks; a gather of community banks into sizes viable for mechanization and economics of scale; evasion of existing educational imbalances between the cattle rearing people of Fulbe, Bororo, Kayam, Shua Arabs, Badawi, Baldum,


125

Achenewa, Buzzu, the fishing people of Riverine South and others; privatization of some government own assert and incentives which enhance workers take home pay.

The ex post facto research design was adopted for the study. This was because the independent variable, sex employment status and technical education had already occurred. As such they could not be manipulated.

Polytechnic graduates of south-south Nigeria, having been considered representative of other polytechnic graduation in Nigeria were selected through convenience and snow-balling sampling techniques as the sample. The sample distribution was as follows: 16 (26.7%) of sample members were unemployed, 10 (16.7%) were self employed, 14 (23.3%) were private sector employed and 20 (33.3%) were government employed. However, the dichotomous distribution of the sample by sex respectively showed, 12 (27.3%) males and 4 (25%) females to be unemployed, 9 (20,5%) males and 1 (6.25%) females to be self employed, 10 (22.7%) males and 4 (25%) to be organized private sector employed, and 13 (29.5%) males and 7 (43.75%) females to be government sector employed. The overall sample was 60, with 44 (73.3%) male and 16 (26.7%) female dichotomies. But the non-dichotomous distribution indicated. 12 (20%) males and 4 (6.7%) females unemployed, 9 (15%) males and 1 (1.7%) females self employed, 10 (16.7%) males and 4 (6.7%) females organized private sector employed, 13 (21.7%) males and 7 (11.7%) females government sector employed.

Five Likert type questionnaires were used to collect date. These were the Personal Employment Characteristics Self Rating Questionnaire (PEC SQ), the Graduate Employment Search Behaviour Job Creation Inventory (GESJI), the Personality Job Creation Behaviour Inventory (PJCBI), the Gender Role Stereotyping Job Creation Behavior Inventory (GJCBI) and the C-O Work Behaviour Inventory (COJBI). In all these questionnaires, the study made use of mostly their demographic section or information. Each of them was trial tested and the data obtained used to compute their different rehabilitee coefficient through Cronbach coefficient Alpha, Accordingly, their reliability coefficients were found to be 0.84, o.82, 0.91, 0.93, and 0.91. The instruments were, however, adaptations of those earlier developed by the National Directorate of Employment (1989), Hitchin (1996), Akinboye (2001), Alexander (1996) and Jones and Jones (1990).

For each of the employment status and sex category, copies of the questionnaire were administered to members of the sample directly and moreso with the help of nine (9) personal assistants. The inventory was not collected back immediately from the respondents; they could not complete the questionnaire immediately. The exercise lasted 3 months and 88% response note was recorded.

Data generated with these instruments were analyzed using t-test and chi-square (x2) statistics. This, ofcourse, was done relative to the fallowing research polytechnic graduates. Ho1: Sex does not significantly influence polytechnic graduates’ contribution to the labour force of Nigeria. Ho2: Employment status does not significantly influence polytechnic graduates’ contribution to the labour force of Nigeria. Ho3: Contribution towards the Nigerian labour force does not differ for male polytechnic graduates and female polytechnic graduates.

The mean perception scores, standard deviations, per centages, expected frequencies, variance and z-scores for contributions toward the Nigerian labour force by polytechnic graduates on the basis of sex and employment status are shown in tables 1, 2, 3.

Table 4 T-test analysis of sex and labour contribution by polytechnic graduated (N=60) Sex N X SD Z df Standard error t-cal t-crit P<0.05 Male 44 11 1.58 20.88 6 1.53 4.575 2.447 0.99s Female 16 4 2.12 5.66


126

The results in the table show the females to vis-à-vis the males, have at 6 degrees of freedom and 0.05 alpha level the least mean labour contribution or participation score (x-4,SD=22.12,Z=5.553), while the males have the highest (x =11,SD=1.58, 2=2.88). The difference is 7-0.54, and -2.78 respectively. Therefore, the null hypothesis Ho2 is rejected, because the result indicate a significant in the labour force contributions or production of male and female polytechnic graduates (t cal = 4.57 and t crit = 2.447). Table 5 Chi-square comparison of male and female polytechnic graduates labour force contribution according to

employment status (N=60) Sex Men (N=44) Women (N16) Employment status

N % FE X2 cal df

X2crit N % Fe X2cal df X2cril

Employed 12 75 32.27 12.73* 3 2.366 4 25 4.27 0.017 3 2.366 Self employed 9 90 32.27 16.78* 3 2.366 1 10 4.27 2.504 3* 2.366 Private sector employed

10 71.4 32.27 15.37* 3 2.366 4 28.64 4.27 0.017 3 4.27

Government employed

3 65 32.27 11.51* 3 2.366 7 35 4.27 1.745 3 2.366

P< 0.05

From the table, all calculated chi-square (x2) for the four employment categories were, for the men, greater than the critical x2 value of 2.366 at 0.06 alpha level. So, the H02 hypothesis was rejected. This meant employment status had or still has great influence on news contribution to, or participation in the Nigerian labour force. Men contribute to or participate in one way or the other in the Nigeria labour force contribution, or participation in the Nigeria labour force is a common phenomenon characteristic of every man’s employment status be I that of unemployment, self employment, organized private sector employment or government employment. Arowolo (1983) in his study of population charge and labour force supply in Nigeria support this finding relative to the status of the old east, minus and mid-west, regions, except those of the old western region, where minus Lagos, woman as men showed a significant contribution to the labour force.

The finding is a further support to those of Ysufu (2000), which reports females to constitute 44,462,621 (49.96%) of the total Nigerian population in 1991, 23,675,975 of the 46,091,452 of the potential labour force, but 9,009,595 (37.4%) of the total number of 24,117,842 employed persons, while the men accounted for 15,107, 883, or 62.6%.

Keating (1994) identifies these dispancies with the fact that males possers a grandeur and magnitude which the females do not. According to her in all instance, the males quest is exchanged for rootedness, while that of female’s is very often after activities centered around the home. Keatings position is supported by Ukpokody (1994), Udumukwu (1994) and Nnaemeka (1994).

On the contrary, results in the table show under the females the Ho2 hypothesis not rejected. At 0.05 alpha level, all the calculated chi-square (x2) values are, except for the self employment status lower than the critical chi-square value. For self employment status x2 cal = 2.504 and x2-critic =2.366. but for the employment status of the unemployed, organized private sector employed and government employed it is 0.017, 0.017, and 1.745, which of 3df are lower than the 2.366 critical x2. This position is in the support of that of Arikpo, Edem and Kolawole (2009). In their study of factors influencing self employing males services, they discovered multiple regression coefficients for females were 0.549, while those for males were 0.417. Equally, whereas for the males, the factors accounted for 17.4% observable variance in the dependent variable, for the females they accounted 30.1%. The disparity could be attributed to the fact that such self employing jobs are of reproductive, productive and emancipator roles socio-fundamentally peculiar to women (Fadeyi, 2001).


127

Table 6 X2 comparison of male and female labour force continuous of polytechnic graduate (N=60) Sex N Unemployed Self employed Private sector

employed Government employed

Total df X2cal X2crit

Male 44 12 (32.27)

9 (32.27)

10 (32.27)

13 (32.27)

129.08

3

56.39

2.366

Female 16 4 (4.27)

1 (4.27)

4 (4.27)

7 (4.27)

17.08

3 3

4.283

2.366

P< 0.05

Table 6 indicates x2 calculated for males and females to be greater than x2 critical (x2 = 56.39 and 4.283 as against 2.366 respectively). But calculated x2 for male (x2=56.39) is at 0.05 alpha level greater than that calculated for females (x2= 4.283). However, for both sex, the hypothesis H03 is rejected. This is because there is significant difference in the labour force contributions of male and female polytechnic graduates. The disparity is x2=52.107 to the favour of men. This finding is contradicted by the 1991 Federal Republic of Nigeria’s population census analytical report on agricultural labour force.

The report presents women between ages 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 45-49, to make slightly higher contributions than the men, those between ages 30-34 to make same amount of contribution as the men, but men 35-39, 40-44, 50-54, 55-59, and 60-64 to make contribution slightly higher than the women, even when the contribution is in the area of agriculture considered most peculiar to women (Yesufu 2000). To cotti quoted Lowder-Newton (1985) such functions in women’s contribution go back to a social power based on women’s special female qualities rather than general human rights. The difference is to her manifested not in sexuality or men’s desires but power or ability to influence and produce intended affects on society (Udumukwu, 1994).

It is to this end necessary that the content and context of the polytechnic education prevalent in Nigeria provides the women with activities, content, behavioural outcomes and examinations that are conscious raising. Central to amelioration of the low contribution of women than men towards the Nigerian labour force at all ages will need to be a collective critical reconstruction of the meaning of the woman’s socio-economic experience. So, consciousness for the women will imply purity, autonomy and freedom from any worldly entanglement with men domestically, curriculum will to this end need to employ conscientization as a method and means of changing the status quo. Status quo here will mean the relationship between men and women, the thingnified woman and elated man, and polytechnic adulation which serves to help women indent and their deportable position in contribution toward the national labour force. Its task will be to move women from the socio-economically closed to the socio-economically open individual, it will a labour force participation transforming process; an instrument for correcting the socio-economic injustice done to women by men; teaching women to question (i) the non-natural and instinctive roles men and society assigns to them; (ii) the power of men over them; (iii) the traditional settings which make them subjects to men; (iv) some social anthropologists who look at them as commodities or goods to be kept by men if through valuable, but either circulated, discarded, through divorce when no longer needed; (v) the traditional arrogance and unquestionable wisdom of men to enable them decode the myth behind their minimal contribution to the national labour force; a dialogue process, which establishes a horizontal than vertical relationship between men and women polytechnics graduates making both equal participants or contributors to Nigeria’s labour force.

Another method to be employed by curriculum will need as well to be the real labour force contribution materials. This will expose the women to the use of readily available labour force contribution materials in their immediate environment for cultivation of labour force contribution practices of men. The method says rather than rely on themes, settings, plots, points of view, characterization, and diction of text materials for courses offered in


128

polytechnics, these limitless real materials are enough to create labour force contribution, or participation common of men.

Distance education may as well be another strategy for disseminating to women that labour force contribution ability of men. It will not only teach the women the labour force contribution abilities of men, but mobilize and sensitize them towards such labour force contributions. References: Adeyemo, A. J. (1997). The demand for higher education and employment opportunities in Nigeria: Final report. Ibadan: Foundation for entrepreneurship development. Agba, A. V. (1994). Principles of macroeconomics. Lagos: Concept Publication. Akinboye, J. O. (2001). Akinboye’s executive battery plus other organizational behaviour management tests: Tests for personnel selection. Ibadan: CYFO Behaviour Services. Alexander, L. (1996). Career planning for women. Plymouth: How to Books. Arikpo, A; Oden, S. N; Edem, E. & Kolawole, C. O. O. (2009). Factors influencing self-employment media service provide among tertiary institution graduates in South-South Nigeria. Annals of Modern Education 1(1) 10-20. Arowolo, O. O. (1983). Population change and labour force supply. In I. O. Orubuloye & O. Y. Oyeneye (Ed). Population and development in Nigeria. Ibadan: Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER). Fadeyi, T. (2001). Utilizing distance education potentials for women. Ibadan Journal of Distance Education 1 (1) 33-43. Federal Republic of Nigeria (1981) National policy on education. Lagos: NERDC. Hitchin, P. (1996). Getting your first job. Plymouth: How to Books. Ikpe, U. N. (2000). An introduction to vocational-business education in Nigeria. Benin: Baaj International Company. Jones. G. & Jones B. (1991). Naturally gifted: A Christian perspective on personality, gifts and abilities. London: Scripture Union. Keating, G. (1994). Alice Walker: In praise of maternal heritage. The Literary Griot 6 (1) 26-37. Livingstone, I. & Goodall, A. S. (1970). Economic and development: An introduction. Nairobi: Oxford University Press. Lowder-Newton, J. (1985). Women, power and subversion. London: Methuen. National Directorate of Employment Abuja: Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, 1989. NISER (1991). Nigerian economy and society economic policy and development 1988-89. Ibadan: NISER NISER (1993). Nigerian economy and society economic policy and development 1990-91. Ibadan: NISER Nnaemaka, O. (1994). Centrela clo ture: escape et architecture dela liberte chez Mariama Ba. The Literary Griot 6 (1) 61-70. Oguntunase, B. (1985). The way out of unemployment. National Concord, October 30, p.2. Okedara, J. T. (1984). Employment status of University of Ibadan graduates 1950-1971. Ibadan: University Press. Okorie, J. U. (2001). Vocational industrial education Bauchi: League of Reseachers. Oladeji, S. I. (1994). Absorption of education manpower into Nigeria’s informal sector: Diagnostic studies series 1. Abuja: National Manpower Board. Osuala, E. C. (1987). Foundations of vocational education: A behavioural objective approach. Ohio: South-Western Publishing. Udumukwu, O. (1994). Post-colonial feminism: Zaynab Alkali the still born. The Literary Griot 6 (1) 47-60.


129

Ukpokodu, I. P. (1994).Woman is power: The Iconoclasm of death and the king’s horsemen. The Literary Griot 6 (1) 38-45. Yesufu, T. M. (2000). The human factor in national development: Nigeria. Ibadan: Spectrum.


130

CRAFTING SMART CITIES IN THE GULF REGION: A COMPARISON OF MASDAR AND LUSAIL

Evren Tok, PhD Assistant Professor & Program Coordinator in Public Policy and Islam Program, Qatar

Faculty of Islamic Studies, Doha/Qatar Fatemah Al Mohammad, MA (c)

Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies, MA. Candidate Maha Al Merekhi

Director of Strategic Planning, Qatar Foundation

Abstract

Deployment of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in crafting smart cities in the Gulf Cooperation Council region including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain. Increasing economic dynamism in the GCC region has led development authorities, infrastructure companies, governmental and corporate entities to be more cognizant of deploying ICT solutions for various infrastructural platforms such as intelligent transportation, telecommunications, airports, sustainable environments, public safety, energy efficient buildings, residential and utilities projects. These projects not only stretch the limits of creativity, but also inform us about the neoliberal trajectories pursued by “globalizing” cities and their excessive focus on sustaining competitiveness. This study looks at these trajectories by specifically focusing on the interstices of smart cities and competitiveness through the role played by communication technologies. An initial question to tackle with pertains to the definition of a smart city as this concept is used in diverse ways in the literature. Transforming the cities into smart ones is a newly emerging strategy to deal with the problems created by the urban population growth and rapid urbanization. Smart city is often defined as “an icon of a sustainable and livable city.” Why Gulf countries have been investing in smart cities? Is the emergence of smart cities a mere reflection or neoliberal urbanization or are there other dynamics that we need to take into consideration? This paper attempts to convey the message that smart cities are crucial means of building social capital and also attaining better governance mechanisms in the Gulf.

Keywords: Smart cities, ICTs, governance, Qatar, Gulf “Lusail City is where Qatar’s imagination comes to life”& “Masdar City…Highest quality of life with lowest environmental footprint…” Introduction

This study approaches the development of Smart Economic & Sustainable Cities in the GCC through the application of these ICT based infrastructural platforms in a comparative perspective. Qatar (Lusail Smart City, Al Wa’ab City & Energy City), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) (Makkah Smart City, Knowledge Economic City & King Abdullah Economic City), and United Arab Emirates (UAE) (Masdar City, Dubai Health City) constitute most recent examples of smart cities in the Gulf Region. Although there is an increase in frequency of use of the phrase “smart city”, there is still not a clear and consistent understanding of the concept among practitioners and academia. Only a limited number of studies investigated and began to systematically consider questions related to this new urban phenomenon of smart cities (Chourabi et al 2012). Smart city forerunners like San Diego, San Francisco, Ottawa,


131

Brisbane, Amsterdam, Kyoto, and Bangalore are all now setting a trend for others to follow (Sam Allwinkle & Peter Cruickshank, 2011) .

The concept of smart city entails common characteristics that are key indicators of smartness in a city: a smart economy (sustainable economic growth), smart mobility, smart environment (wise management of natural resources), smart people, smart living (a high quality of life), and smart governance (participatory governance). In the literature, there are widely accepted measures of what a smart city constitutes. For instance, the smartness of a city should be measured by its participatory governance, its smart economy, its smart urban mobility, its smart environmental strategy and management of natural resources, and the presence of its self‐decisive, independent, and aware citizens leading a high‐quality urban life. Three necessary conditions are defined to create a spatially enabled society: first, citizens have to be “spatially literate”; second, “a conducive environment” for sharing spatial data is needed; third, globally unified Geospatial standards are needed (Roche et al, 2012). The practical application of this view refers to the individuals’ ability to use geospatial information and location technology as a means to improve the way they interact with the space and other individuals on/in/through space.

To illuminate the connection between smart cities and ICTs, Richard Florida’s “Creative City” (2008, 2006, 2005, and 2002) thesis is a fertile analytical approach for understanding how cities, especially in periods of neoliberal globalization, have become central to the attainment of competitive advantage. Resulting from the internalization of neoliberal values by national governments, local authorities, municipal leaders and other actors, it is now possible to detect a form of “hollowed out” nation state (Jessop, 2002), or the downloading of the capacities, responsibilities and authority of nation states onto cities. Consequently, as Florida’s “Creative City” thesis27 illustrates, the real economic competition today plays out among cities, not nation states. Florida’s thesis positions the three T’s - Technology, Talent, and Tolerance – as responsible for attracting the “Creative Class”, contributing to the national economy and establishing the requisite framework for sustaining competitive advantage. While communication technologies should not be perceived as the only determinant of “creativity”, they are indicative of the “new technologies of power” which have arguably become the momentum behind the intensification of a neoliberal ethos in urban spaces. As such, Florida’s creative city thesis and its accompanying buzzwords, “creative class” and “creative economy”, celebrate the increasing hegemony of the neoliberal market mentality.

Nonetheless, this hegemony is a contested one, albeit in different forms, intensities and technologies. The mechanisms portrayed as making cities more competitive also inform us that, while competitiveness is a key neoliberal concern in the production of urban spaces and creative cities, innovative technologies work in two directions: (1) deepening the hegemony of markets by marshalling creativity and communication technologies towards the deeper entrenchment of market logic; and (2) impacting the way urban space is imagined, instituted and produced by the state. Hence, the combination of 1 and 2 indicate that states and markets are interlinked in many different ways and market logic is not essentially at loggerheads with the state. The rise of smart cities in the Gulf region signify that states and markets engender new collaborations through the use of ICTs and investigation of the state as 27 The creativity of cities is attributed to various factors, including openness to diversity, level of tolerance and the peaceful coexistence of differences in a society. Levels of technological innovation and a population comprised of talented and innovative people are also believed to have a direct impact on the creativity and hence, development of a city. In his latest book, Florida (2008) asserts that people can now choose the cities in which they want to live in, and this choice is shaped by the characteristics of the cities. In an earlier text (Florida, 2002), two population indexes are developed. The creativity index measures the number of artists, musicians, and painters living in a city, (also called the bohemian index). The diversity index is itself composed of two indices, the first one is the melting pot index, the number and ratio of foreign born people and immigrants, and the second is the gay and lesbian index, measuring the tolerance of the community, as well as the region.


132

an entrepreneur under the times of neoliberal urbanization is a critical area that needs to be delved into. Neoliberal Urbanization and State as an Entrepreneur

First, let us start with what neoliberalization means for the city and why the city is itself important to processes of neoliberalization? Neoliberalization is a range of policies intended to extend market discipline, competition and commodification throughout society. It is a search for securing the “vital cycle of economic growth”. Neoliberal mindset needs quality economic foundations, such as quality of life, financial capital, business climate, so and so forth, reassuring Florida’s main thesis so that new people and ideas in the form of creativity fosters this cycle. In the current context, neoliberal doctrines have brought about the deregulation of state control over industry and markets, assaults on organized labor, the downsizing and/or privatization of public services and assets, the dismantling of welfare programs, the enhancement of international capital mobility and the intensification of interlocality competition. Its implementation has relied on national restructuring projects (Peck et al, 2009), and the dominance of competitive logic over redistributive objectives has opened up new spaces of contestation among economic actors, institutions, municipalities, nation states and civil actors. This has had significant implications for localities given the risks and responsibilities of downloading.

When we stand back and try to decipher the dynamics behind the increasing hegemony of neoliberalism in redesigning, restructuring and reproducing urban spaces, it becomes possible to conceptualize this phenomenon as a state strategy for creating new conditions of capital accumulation. However, as Brenner and Theodore (2002, 120-130) note, although neoliberal projects take place at different and tangled scales, it is cities and regions in which the contradictions and tensions of actually or already existing neoliberalism are manifested. Cities become the venues on which these tensions and contradictions are concretized and managed (or attempts at management of these tensions and contradictions are made). There is now, for example, increasing city level competition across national borders for foreign direct investment and for trade in city based services and urban assets. Increasingly, urban economic performance matters more than national economic outcomes.

These dynamics correspond to ‘a gradual shift away from distributive policies, welfare considerations, and direct service provision’ and mark the competitive state’s movement ‘towards more market-oriented and market dependent approaches aimed at pursuing economic promotion and competitive restructuring’ (Swyngedouw et al. 2002, 200). Through this process, supply-side economic logic privileges the production of urban ‘spaces of spectacle’ in which the consumption of, and access to, goods by the urban population exists as a source of political motivation for neoliberal ideas. In this sense, rather than attempting to shift the social inequities brought about by the neoliberal political economy, policy concerns are directed towards ensuring urban centers appear attractive to mobile-capital and elite consumers with the explicit goal of improving “the tax basis of the city via a sociospatial and economic reorganization of metropolitan space” (204).

This increasing emphasis on the rise of cities and urban centers as the new spaces of capitalist accumulation (Brenner, 2004) also brings into the fold a variety of new or more diverse actors that collectively produce and reproduce urban spaces. Thus, the rise of cities and the way in which cities are perceived as the new engines of neoliberal capitalism should be seen as a product of agency. This leads us to approach the attainment of competitiveness as part of the urban socio-spatial dialectic that is not limited to the realm of economics, but that exists in the realm of culture as well. For this reason, as the cases below from the Gulf Region will demonstrate, the use of new technologies of power is an effective tool for analyzing this intermingling and articulations between the markets and states.


133

There is no doubt that new urban technologies are important in harnessing creative capacities for the sake of producing more vibrant, more competitive and more livable cities. The role of communication technologies is indicative of structural dynamics in relation to the unfolding of the neoliberal vocabulary, which asserts that cities matter for accumulation of capital. Florida’s creative city thesis, however, goes one step further and emphasizes that it is not just that cities matter, but that particular strengths and qualities of cities matter. There are greater incentives for cities and city regions to actively promote positive locational characteristics, including patterns of linkage and innovativeness, which can then assist cities in attaining competitive advantage and responding flexibly to changing market conditions. (Florida, 2006, 11)

The interface between states and businesee has always been a subject of interest for scholars due to the different strategies adopted by goverments in the age of increasing globalization (Nasra and Dacin, 2009, 583). The different institutional arrangements exist in each country generate unique state-business relations (2009, 583). Within a changing environment a more critical role of state to ensure economic growth and development has emerged, making it a critical area for researches. This role “entails greater involvement and interaction with economic actor such as entrepreneurs and corporations” (2009, 587). Generally, there is a significant body of literature on state/firms relationships and role of state in economy. With regard to role of states, several literature demonstrate that the classical role of state is ensuring internal order and stablity and regulating the market (587). Nevertheless, states can act as an entrepreneur, identifying opportunities, and as an institutional entrepreneur, building the necessary institutional infrastucture to exploit and capitalize on these opportunities. (Nasra and Dacin, 2009, 601)

Through institutional entrepreneurship the state role as a change agent is activated. The implications of being a change agent have been explored in literature. For instance organizational scholars found positive impacts of the transformative role of states on employment and human resources practices, and organizational forms (Nasra and Dacin, 2009, 587). Building institutional structures can facilitate the creation of new productive capacities and set further opportunities (2009, 586). Additionally, shaping institutions impacts international entrepreneurship, Ireland and Webb (2006) emphasizes that the role of the state is not confined to offering support to economic activities through regulations but also by mediating several factors including instability and uncertainity in the market. For example some of the means to attract foreign investments, as indicated by Johnasson (1994) have been the establishment of free zones and ports, thought they are not novel. (as cited in Nasra and Dacin, 2009, 586-587)

The notion of ‘resource mobalization’ is central to the role of state as institutional entrepreneure. Resources are not necessary tangible, but definitely intangible such as the assests of networks and alliances with firms, mechants, corporations and trading community. The state as institutional entrepreneur should posse social and political skills to facilitate cooperation among the different actors. Furthermore, establishing institutional structure and enabling frameworks promotes entrepreneurship within the country itself (Nasra and Dacin, 2009, 596). Generally, creation of institutional infrasturcture enables the counrty to establish and manage two types of legitimacies: national and international. This legitimacy contributes to country’s attractiveness for international entrepreneurs and political stability within the country and the region. (2009, 585)

Despite the fact that states in GCC are represented by individuals due to the monarchical system, it is not a limitation as these actors have showed explicit willingness and latitude to create change (Nasra and Dacin, 2009, 601). Smart cities as free zones are part of the processes of crafting an institutional infrastructure by the state, as the principal entrepreneur and a change agent with a transformative power.


134

Smart Cities of the Gulf Region The six countries in the Gulf region share several common features, such as the high

per capita GDP, monarchical rule and central authority, and abundant financial wealth generated from their dependence on oil and gas (Khodr, 2012, 150). The abundant wealth has contributed to the “introduction of comprehensive administration reform and the need to provide more public services” (2012, 151). The public policies have been formulated and implemented in different sectors. The Smart Cities, or the Specialized Cities as named by Khdor, in the region are “important sources of [policy] innovation and economic growth, as well as vehicles for globalization” (2012, 152). There is a diffusion of SC phenomena occurring in the Gulf region (2012, 149). Indeed, governments are not different from individuals or organizations when comes to innovation (2012, 172). Although there are several projects around the world similar to the Smart Cities in the Gulf, like Silicon Valley and Kerala’s Smart City, SC in GCC are built from scratch rapidly (2012, 152). There are many projects in the region, such as Education City in Qatar, Healthcare City in Dubai and Masdar City in Abu Dhabi.

The concept of free zone is crucial to the understanding of smart city. “A free zone is one with multiple economic incentives, opportunities and benefits” (Khodr, 2012, 155). The majority of Smart Cities in the Gulf are free zones. However, those without population are mostly called enterprises, while others are called cities only for marketing purposes. Some Smart Cities built for political, economic, religious, ethnic or education reasons. The use of terms such as bay and park is common (2012, 155-156). Nevertheless, there are several internal determinants for such innovation. The first determinant is the political system. The rulers of this region are the policy entrepreneurs who have greater latitude to create change. Dependence on fossil fuels, which will eventually run out, constitutes the second internal determinant. Overcoming social problems emerged from dependence on foreign workforce and planning to improve the education and heath sectors are the final determinant (2012, 173). On the other hand, the diffusion is a result of geographical proximity. Some states already adopted these innovation policies and proximate countries tend to have the same economic and social problems and aspects. It is also the result of high level of communication between governmental officials. They learn from each other but also compete with each other (2012, 173). Comparison of Masdar/Abu Dhabi/UAE and Lusail/Doha/Qatar

In the past decade, Qatar has transformed itself into a major hub for numerous economic and cultural activities. What is more, Qatar becomes extremely attractive as a place for foreign investment. Qatar’s national vision for the year 2030 consists of basic foundations focus on the necessity of continuous social development in order to achieve a fair and safe society based on upholding human values and social welfare and aim to maintain and improve its economic standards in order to further strengthen its national economy and remain competitive, while continuing to secure and satisfy the needs of its citizens. Qatar plans on fostering investment in environmental development in order to maintain a balance between economic growth and environmental protection and awareness. Lusail City project is planned, designed and implemented in accordance with Qatar’s national vision for the year 2030. It blends modern facets of architecture with traditional values and norms. Above all, it is a project inspired by the mystique of Qatar’s heritage. Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company was established in December 2004 to support Qatar’s growing economy and to co-ordinate the country’s real estate development priorities. With a mission to become the most effective and trusted real estate investment company in the world, Qatari Diar strives to create developments that are sustainable, quality-built, well-planned and ultimately desirable places to visit, work and live.


135

Lusail City is a futuristic project which will create a modern and ambitious society. The smart, peaceful and inspirational environment combines artistic elements of architecture with various practical and versatile services in order to satisfy all the needs of its residents and visitors. Lusail City extends across an area of 38 square kilometres and includes four exclusive islands and 19 multi-purpose residential, mixed use, entertainment and commercial districts. It is a comprehensive arena with leisure spots, residential buildings, commercial towers, avenues and public ports. Lusail, a true city of the future, accommodates 200,000 residents and 170,000 employees; it will also welcome over 80,000 visitors. The total estimated population of Lusail will eventually reach 450,000 people. The city also includes numerous residential units, office buildings of various sizes and 22 hotels with different international star ratings, making it an element of attraction for investment in Qatar.

The United Arab Emirates is comprised of seven emirates. By 1971, when the U.A.E. officially declared itself an independent federation, Abu Dhabi was the natural choice for capital of the new country due to its wealth, its undisputed political clout as well as the strength of its leaders’ local and foreign alliances (Nasra & Dacin, 2009). Although economic developments are ongoing in all emirates, most of the projects are concentrated in two of the emirates: Dubai and Abu Dhabi. UAE has started a process of ‘‘transforming oil wealth into renewable energy leadership, and has set the long-term goal of a ‘‘transition from a 20th Century, carbon-based economy into a 21st Century sustainable economy (Reiche, 2010). In early 2007, The UAE government has announced the government strategy for the coming years, outlining activities and ambitions. Different emirates have developed their own economic strategies, e.g., Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030 and Dubai Strategic Plan 2015.

Although the dynamics of policymaking might be difference in Qatar and UAE, the planning regimes and general policy model is very similar. It all starts with a leadership vision: general policies become part of this vision; a decision is taken; and policies are formulated, adopted, then implemented, and often evaluated. Channels of communication between the public and the government official are diverse, though the interactions between the stakeholders are unique, and the public participation and the institutional legislative power are deferent in scope, size, and nature. Furthermore, the participants operate in a special policy milieu and use mechanisms to affect the making of the policy that are specific to the country’s political traditions and recent political developments (Khodr 2010).

Businesses and governments are starting to recognize the role of technology in meeting the goals of urban infrastructure provisioning both today and in the long term (Gregor Harter& others 2010 ), that leads to increase the reliance on smart cities in United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Masdar City is an eco-city, located in the vicinity of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. It is a project of Abu Dhabi’s state-run Masdar Corporation, in partnership with Foster + Partners, a prominent British architecture firm (Isabelle Whitehead 2009). Lusail City is one of the most ambitious and ground breaking concepts of Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company, which aspires to become the most internationally renowned company in real estate investment.

Three years before the government of UAE’s announcement of the first renewable energy policy in 2009, Abu Dhabi made a decision to initiate ‘Masdar Initiative’ (Mezher and Park, 2012, 73). Masdar means ‘the source’ (Snyder, 2009, 2). This initiative aims to “advance renewable energy and sustainable technologies through education, R&D, investment and commercialization” as mentioned in Masdar website – About Masdar. Masdar City is part of Masdar Initiative. For implementation, Abu Dhabi created Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (ADFEC), later called Masdar Company in 2006 (Mezher and Park, 2012, 74). ADFEC is mandated to drive the initiative. Masdar was established by Mubadala Development Company; a public joint stock company founded by the government of Abu Dhabi (Perkins, 2009, 11), and designed by Foster + Partners; a British architectural firm for feats technological wizardry (Ouroussoff, 2010). The city is “presented as a solution to the


136

equally pressing current problems of resource depletion and climate change” (Snyder, 2009, 2). The city is US $22 billion free zone located 17 km from Abu Dhabi’s downtown (Mezher and Park, 2012, 74). The city is built to meet different purposes. Contributing to sustainable human development, changing the position of UAE as technology producer and developer, expanding Abu Dhabi’s role in the global energy market and economic diversification are the main objectives of this initiative (Mezher and Park, 2012, 74).

Indeed, the economy of the emirate is mainly dependent on exporting fossil fuels and the government has started to strengthen the knowledge-based economic sectors. Thus Masdar City does have a remarkable role in this transition period from carbon-based economy to sustainable economy. The climate change has also created a global demand for alternative sources of energy. Hence, Masdar City as the vital technological cluster in the region will make Abu Dhabi a global energy leader. From a policy perspective, Masdar City will provide the government of Abu Dhabi with an opportunity to contribute to global policy development. (Reiche, 2010, 379)

The city will include “apartments, laboratories, factories, movie theaters, cafes, schools and a fire station – everything a normal city contains” (Snyder, 2009, 5). Masdar City will become a homeland for a population of 90,000: 40,000 residents and 50,000 daily commuters (Reiche, 2010, 379). The city incorporates traditional Arabic architecture, central social space and agricultural zone. “The city is raised 23 feet off the ground to allow for transportation and removal networks underneath.” (Snyder, 2009, 5) Cars are prohibited in Masdar City (Snyder, 2009, 8). Resident will use the personal rapid transports (PRTs) and can choose to walk or ride bicycles. Commuters will have to park in offsite lots and take light rail transportation into the city. (Snyder, 2009, 6)

Masdar City embraces the One Planet Living Principles, which were developed by BioRegional and World Wide Fund for Nature. Masdar City provides a chance to implement these principles. Masdar City’s main principles are to establish a free-carbon zone that uses energy from renewable resources, minimize and recycle waste, create sustainable transports, preserve culture through building and city design, ensure fair wages and working conditions, and to design building to integrate health and happiness (Mezher and Park, 2012, 77). Additionally, the first component of the urban sustainability strategy of Masdar City is economic. It is related to real estate development, intellectual property ownership and human capital. The second component is environmental which related to renewable energy, green buildings, and intelligent transportation. The last one is the social benefits generated from living in Masdar City. (Mezher and Park, 2012, 78)

Masdar has several subsidiary companies. Masdar Institute of Science and Technology is the key pillar of Masdar City (Reiche, 2010, 380). Masdar Institute was established in 2007, in cooperation with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (Mezher and Park, 2010, 76). This unit is the “Middle East’s first graduate institution dedicated to the research and development of sustainability and renewable energy” (Perkins, 2009, 11). Masdar Institute building uses at least 70% less electricity and potable water than any similar conventional building. (Mezher and Park, 2010, 76)

Another unit is Masdar Carbon, which aims to create a significant reduction in Abu Dhabi’s carbon footprint. The unit will develop a “multi-dollar national carbon network”. Masdar Carbon will be offering technological assistance, project owners, and carbon management and finance. Masdar Power invests in renewable energy projects. It will help power companies to add renewable energy to their generation mix, while supporting cleantech companies with expertise and capital (Mezher and Park, 2010, 75). The last unit is Masdar Capital that aims to build a portfolio of cleantech and renewable energy companies and to provide them with capital and expertise. It targets investment focused on clean energy and environmental resources and services. (Mezher and Park, 2010, 76)


137

The actual objective of Masdar City is most commonly criticized. Some scholars believe that Masdar City is one of these several projects and plans to show off and impress the world (Snyder, 2009, 14 and Reiche, 2010, 380). The project of Masdar City only shows that the “region in more concerned with image than with environment sustainability per se” (Snyder, 2009, 14). Khodr argues that the major social aspects remain unclear and questions the ability of the city to attract 40,000 people to live within its boundaries. (2012, 160). Both Masdar and Lusail cities represents clearly what Kanter and Litow discussed about smart cities, where they “consider a smarter city as an organic whole––a network and a linked system. While systems in industrial cities were mostly skeleton and skin, postindustrial cities—smart cities—are like organisms that develop an artificial nervous system, which enables them to behave in intelligently coordinated ways (Chourabi and Gil-Garcia et al. 2012, pp. 2289-2297).” Conclusion

A smart city would be a popular policy option for GCC countries. The main reason for investing in smart cities would be to overcome the rising problems that are emerging with the rapidly growing population in the urban areas. The role of government as an ‘entrepreneur’ in crafting those cities is remarkable as it enables the economic growth through the public-private-partnerships. However, the smart cities are not yet examined for success, only with time the real results will tell. A detailed comparison of Lusail City and Masdar City is provided below in Table 1.

Table 1: A Comparison of Lusail and Masdar City Category Masdar City Lusail City Country Unite Arab Emirates State of Qatar City Abu-Dhabi Doha

Description The design is based on a fusion of the traditional Arab walled city with innovative modern architecture

A Futuristic project aim to create a modern and ambitious society. Artistic elements of architecture with various practical and versatile services.

Vision Promote renewable energies & Develop sustainable and renewable alternatives to fossil fuels

A show case for urban development. Lusail city is to be as a conscience of sustainable development

Target Segment Citizens Investors and development partners.

Citizens Investors and development partners.

Competitive Advantage

Carbon-Neutral Zero-Waste City Promoting sustainable energy

Integration to QNV 2030

Launching Year 2006 2008 Completion Year 2025 2019/20

Challenges

The question of governance sustainability highly relevant; The social and Governance Responsibility is an ambiguity matter.(Dr. Khodor, 2012) The challenge of substitution between natural resources and zero carbon economy (Whitehead, 2011) Residents will not own cars, therefore this will result in severe limitation on personal freedom. (Snyder, 2009). The dependence on Rail system will create a challenge for business shipments. (Snyder, 2099)

The question of would the city attract the targeted number of residents and visitors? Another challenge is how it will serve to mitigate the urban rapid population increase while it only serves a certain segment of the society, the elite of the community? As Lusail is a city inside a city, would its infrastructure, prevent from inheriting the current situation of bureaucracy and work delay in some of the offices of the country? Qatar may face the challenge of


138

Some of the technologies Masdar city is designed to use have not been examined to sustain and work efficiently in harsh deserts conditions. (Snyder, 2009) The heavily relying on ICTs remains a challenge for two reasons: The ICT changes and develops rapidly, and in case of natural disasters how would human react and live there lives. (Allwinkle, Cruickshank, 2011)

human resource employment not on worker level but in hiring levels. (Mansfield,2012) The heavily relying on ICTs remains a challenge for two reasons: The ICT changes and develops rapidly, and in case of natural disasters how would human react and live there lives. (Allwinkle, Cruickshank, 2011)

Role of the State

Power is mainly with in the ruling families and hence the full legal control of oil and gas resources is with local government. Therefore, the state in UAE has a great role. (Reiche,2010) The State is diversify the country’s investment therefore inviting heavily in SC such as Masdar City, to protect its position as leading energy player in world and to help develop the country knowledge base economy. (Perkins, 2009) The state of UAE is investing in Masdar smart city and other cities in other states in order to diversify the investment portfolio of the emirates. Masdar smart city opens opportunities in the market by attracting international investors and joint ventures. Using this strategy is transforming the state role to be institutional entrepreneur and economically active player to cope with the globalization of the market. The states uses the PPP approach as the constructions of the city is being done via international companies, joint ventures with British companies.(Reiche,2010)

Adopting this policy has embodied Qatar National Vision 2030 in the field of real estate development It’s a life evident of the government major initiatives towards building a diversified market, relying on non-hydrocarbons investments to maintain a sustainable welfare to its community. The state is applying the approach of Private joint venture and Public private partnership through Qatari Diar and Lusail subsidiary. As Qatari Diar being a subsidiary of Qatar Investment Authority, the state has guaranteed proper governance is taken in place and that the companies are operating us to the states standards and aligned with the national vision. The state is adopting this policy to mitigate the problems generated by the urban population growth by connecting the infrastructure in a sustainable technology. Throughout the deployment of ICTs, the state will improve its smart governance. (Chourabi et al, 2012)

References: Mezher, Toufic and Jacob Park. "Meeting the Renewable Energy and Sustainability Challenges in GCC Economies: Masdar Initiative Case Study." Ramday, Mohamed A., ed. The GCC Economies: Stepping Up to Future Challenges. New York: Springer, 2012. 69-84. Ouroussoff, Nicolai. "In Arabian Desert, A Sustainable City Rises ." The New York Times (Sep. 25, 2010). Perkins, John. "The Role of Masdar Initiative and Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Developing and Deploying Renewable Technologies in Emerging Economies." ATDF Journal 5.1/2 (2009): 10-15. Reiche, Danyel. "Renewable Energy Policies in the Gulf Countries: A Case Study of the Carbon-Neutral Masdar City in Abu Dhabi." Energy Policy 38 (2010): 378-382. Snyder, Lindsey. "Masdar City: The Source of Inspiration or Uneconomical Spending? ." 12 Dec. 2009 . Whitehead, Isabelle. "Models of Sustainability? A Comparative Analysis of Ideal City Planning in Saltaire and Masdar City."


139

Castells, M. (1991). Informational City: Information Technology, Urban Restructuring and the Urban Regional Process. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Cox, K.R. (1998). Spaces of dependence, spaces of engagement and the politics of scale, or: looking for local politics. Political Geography, 17(1). Evans, G. (2009). Creative Cities, Creative Spaces and Urban Policy. Urban Studies, 46 (5-6). Firmino, R. J., Duarte, F. and Moreira, T. (2008). Pervasive Technologies and Urban Planning in the Augmented City. Journal of Urban Technology, 15: 2. Florida, R. (2002). The Rise of the Creative Class. New York: Basic Books. Florida, R. (2005). Cities and the Creative Class. New York: Routledge. Florida, R. (2006). The Flight of the Creative Class. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. Florida, R. (2008). Who’s your city? New York: Basic Books. Ghere, R. K. and Rismiller, L. S. (2001). Information Technology's Potential to Improve Urban Neighborhoods: Some Citizen Planning Dilemmas', Journal of Urban Technology, 8: 2. Glaeser, E.L. (2000) The new economics of urban and regional growth. In G.L. Clark, M.P. Feldman and M.S. Gertler (eds), The Oxford handbook of economic geography, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Grundy, J. and Boudreau, J.-A. (2008) Living with culture: creative citizenship practices in Toronto, Citizenship Studies, 12(4). Hamel, P., J-A. Boudreau, Keil, R. and Jouve, B. (2006) Arrested Metropolitanism: limits and contradictions of municipal governance reform in Los Angeles, Montreal and Toronto, In: Hubert Heinelt and Daniel Kübler (editors) Metropolitan governance in the 21st century: governing capacity, democracy and the dynamics of place. Milton Park: Routledge. Jessop, B. (2002) Liberalism, Neoliberalism and Urban Governance: A State-Theoretical Perspective. Antipode. 34(3). Johansson, B. Karlson, C. and Stough, R. (2006). The Emerging Digital Economy (Berlin: Springer). Keil, R. (2002). Commonsense Neoliberalism: Progressive Conservative Urbanism in Toronto, Canada. Antipode. 34(3). Kim, T. J. (2008). “Planning for Knowledge Cities in Ubiquitous Technology Spaces: Oppor- tunities and Challenges,” in Y. Tan, K. Velibeyoglu, and S. Baum, eds., Creative Urban Regions: Harnessing Urban Technologies to Support Knowledge City Initiatives (New York: Larner, W. (2000). Neo-liberalism: policy, ideology, governmentality. Studies in Political Economy. 63. Laguerre, M. S. (2005). The Digital City (New York: Palgrave MacMillan). Lefebvre, H. (1991). The Production of Space. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. Lewis, N. M. and Donald, B. (2010). A New Rubric for Canada’s Creative Cities. Urban Mahon, R. and R. Keil. 2006. The Political Economy of Scale: An Introduction. Manuscript. McCann, E. (2007) Inequality and politics in the creative city-region: questions of livability and strategy, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 31(1). Peck, J., Theodore, N. and Brenner, N. (2009). Neoliberal Urbanism: Models, Moments, Mutations. SAIS Review. Vol.29, No.1. Peck, J. (1998). Geographies of Governance: TECs and the Neoliberalisation of local interests. Space and Polity 2(1). Peck, J. (2007) Banal urbanism: cities and the creativity fix, Monu, 7. Peck, J., and Tickell, A. (2002). Neoliberalizing Space. Antipode 34(3). Polanyi, K. (2001, 1957). Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, Boston: Beacon Press. Sands, G. and Reese, L. A. (2008) Cultivating the creative class: and what about Nanaimo?, Economic Development Quarterly, 22(1).


140

Sohn, J., Kim, T. J. and Hewings, G. (2004). “Intra-Metropolitan Agglomeration, Information Technology, and Polycentric Urban Development,” in R. Cappelo and P. Nijkamp, eds., Contributions to Economic Analysis (Elsevier: The Netherlands). Swyngedouw, E., Moulaert, F. and Rodriguez, A. (2002). Neoliberal Urbanization in Europe: Large-Scale Urban Development Projects and the New Urban Policy', Antipode, 34(3). Booz & Co. 2010. Sustainable Urbanization The Role of ICT in City Development. [report] pp. Chourabi, H., Gil-Garcia, J., Pardo, T., Nam, T., Mellouli, S., Scholl, H., Walker, S. and Nahon, K. 2012. "Understanding Smart Cities: An Integrative Framework", paper presented at 45th International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii, IEEE, pp. 2289-2297. Dacin, M. and Nasra, R. 2010. Institutional Arrangements and International Entrepreneurship: The State as Institutional Entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 34 (3), pp. 583- Ibrahim, A. 2011. Economic Clustering in Emerging Markets Case Study: The Gulf Region. [report] Michigan: Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, pp. 1-26. Khodr, H. 2012. The Specialized Cities of the Gulf Cooperation Council: A Case Study of a Distinct Type of Policy Innovation and Diffusiondome. Digest of Middle East Studies, 21 (Number 1), p. 149–177. Lombardi, P., Giordan, S., Farouh, H. and Yousef, W. 2011. "Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Analytic Hierarchy Process", paper presented at International Symposium on the Analytic Hierarchy Process, pp. 1-6. Perkins, J. 2009. The Role of Masdar Initiative and Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Developing and Deploying Renewable Technologies in Emerging Economies. ATDF Journal, 5 (1/2), pp. 10-15. Reiche, D. 2010. Renewable Energy Policies in the Gulf countries:A case study of the carbon-neutral ‘‘Masdar City’’in Abu Dhabi. Energy Policy, 38 p. 378–382. Rami Yousef. 2013 “ Planning the city of the future in Qatar Lusail Integrated Transportation System” Presentation, QFIS, June 24th. Snyder, L. 2009. Masdar City: The Source of Inspiration or Uneconomical Spending?. International Environmental Issues. [report] Repps Hudson, pp. 1-18. Whitehead, I. 2010. Models of sustainability? A comparative analysis of ideal city planning in Saltaire and Masdar City.. [report] pp. 1-13.


141

LINKING AN INTEGRATED APPROACH OF EMPOWERMENT TO EMPLOYEE CREATIVITY

Amro Al-Madadha, PhD Candidate, MBA, BSc Cardiff Metropolitan University

Dimitrios N. Koufopoulos, PhD, MBA, BSc, MCMI, FIMC, MCSI Brunel University

Abstract Nowadays, considerable attention has been paid to employee creativity in

organizations. Therefore, much studies have proposed various approaches to motivate employee creativity in organization. Accordingly, we will conduct a review of different empowerment approaches and employee creativity literature in organizations. The present paper offers insight on how different theories of leadership and empowerment can influence creativity of employees. The paper will start framing different approaches of empowerment. Specifically, empowering leadership, empowerment climate, psychological empowerment. This synthesize of various theories of empowerment has been depicted in an integrated approach of empowerment model. This model describes the mechanism for empowering leadership, empowerment climate and psychological empowerment and their influence on employee creativity.

Keywords: Empowering leadership, empowerment approaches, creativity Introduction

In this era of globalization and due to the increasingly turbulent and unpredictable environments that surrounding organisations and time to time technological changes, employers need extra competitive edge from their employees to be more creative. Employee creativity has been proven to contribute in organizations effectively and innovatively (Amabile, 1988; Shalley et al., 2004). employee creativity qualities give extra competitive edge to react to the competition quickly and efficiently (Amabile et al., 2004).

However, it's the management responsibility to support and encourage employees to be creative (Amabile et al., 2004; Shalley et al., 2004; Zhang & Bartol, 2010; Sun et al., 2012). To do so, higher level of management experienced different methods and approaches to encourage employees to involve in the organizations activity. Thus, influence their creativity in the organization. For several decades a great effort has been devoted to define and explore different management practices such as, participative decision making, delegation, information sharing, job enrichment and TQM and their influence on employees' creativity. However, in the late of 1980s a new concept has saw the light in the organizations, this new concept has emerged from previous management practices. Namely, employee empowerment. Since then, a vast number of publications have appeared in the literature demonstrating the relationship between empowerment and its influence in the organizations. However, researchers and scholars have different understanding regarding employee empowerment. For this reason, a number of studies have proposed to integrate different approaches of empowerment to investigate their influence on employee creativity under three main categories. Specifically, leadership, climate or (structural) empowerment and psychological empowerment (Avey et al., 2008; Tierney, 2008; Zhang and Bartol, 2010; Vecchio et al., 2010; Sun et al., 2012).


142

Along the same vein, the present paper offers different definitions of empowerment and covers different aspects of empowerment. Besides, discusses the mechanism of an integrated approach of empowerment an its influence employee creativity. General Definition of Empowerment

Empowerment has been implicitly defined in the literature under different terms such as participative decision making (Lawler, 1992), job enrichment (Hackman & Oldham), delegation (Chen & Aryee, 2007). However, the literal meaning of empowerment has been referred to "authorise or give power to". Supporting this definition, Conger and Kanaungo (1988, p.477) indicate that power is the focal point of empowerment. And defined empowerment as "the process by which a leader or manager shares his/her power with subordinates". Furthermore, Spreitzer (1995a, p.1444) has defined empowerment from a psychological perspective and it is been defined as "intrinsic task motivational construct manifested in four cognitions, meaning, self-efficacy and impact." Along with these different definitions, researchers have arrived at the conclusion that it is impossible to limit employee empowerment to one single definition (Spreitzer, 2007; Siebert et al., 2011). For this reason, different perspectives of empowerment have been examined in the literature. Approaches of Empowerment

As mentioned earlier, the literature has documented a vast definitions of empowerment. Thus, empowerment cannot be limited to one single definition. Therefore, several researchers have suggested identifying empowerment from different perspectives (Spreitzer, 1996, 2007; Kirkman and Rosen, 1999; Cho and Faerman, 2010; Zhang and Bartol, 2010; Siebert et al. 2011; Sun et al., 2012). Furthermore, to understand the motivational effects on employees that lead to creativity, researchers have examined three major approaches of empowerment, leadership, structural (climate) and psychological approach of empowerment. Empowering leadership

From the perspective of empowering leadership, this style of leadership focuses on enabling and to share power and responsibilities with subordinates, and it is highly related to the empowerment phenomena (Carmeli et al., 2011). Hence, followers of this style of leadership will contribute and participate in the decision making process which in turn enhance the self-efficacy (Gill et al., 2011; Dierendonck & Dijkstra, 2012). Moreover, Ahearne et al.(2005) proposed four dimensions for empowering leadership, 1. Enhancing the meaningfulness of work. 2. Providing autonomy from bureaucratic constrains. 3. Fostering opportunities for participation in decision making. 4. Expressing confidence in high performance. Undoubtedly, these dimensions are highly related to employee creativity (Zhang and Bartol, 2010). Empowerment Climate (Structural Empowerment)

Structural approach has been recognized as a macro approach that concentrate on the structural or contextual factors that foster empowerment in organizations (Spretizer, 2007; Mathieu et al., 2006; Cho and Faerman, 2010). Structural empowerment can be conceptualized as empowerment climate. That is, the mutual perception between employees towards management practices and policies relevant to the empowerment process in the workplace. (Seiber et al., 2004; Sun et al., 2012). Following to this conceptualization, the present paper conceptualize structural empowerment as empowerment climate. However, for this approach of empowerment, researchers have a great debate and argument regarding the dimensions of this approach (Spreitzer, 2007; Cho and Faerman, 2010; Seibert et al., 2011).


143

Psychological Empowerment While empowerment climate has been captured as a macro approach, psychological

approach recognized as a micro approach that deals with the perception of employees towards empowerment in the workplace (Spreitzer, 1995). In contrast to empowerment climate dimensions, the literature has a general consensus regarding the dimensions of psychological empowerment. Namely, competence, meaning, self-determination and impact (Spreitzer, 1996; Walumbwa et al, 2010; Cho and Faerman, 2010; Yang and Choi, 2009; Zhang and Bartol, 2010; Liu et al, 2011; Sun et al, 2012). Creativity

Over the past decades many authors have raised theories about creativity and proposed it. One of the theories suggests that employee creativity is a production of story and is useful ideas in any department or sector (Amabile, 1988; Amabile et al., 2004; Shalley and Gilson, 2004). Moreover, Oldham and Cummings (1996) defined creative performance as ideas, products and procedures that satisfy various conditions. In addition, Cheung and Wong (2011) indicate that creativity relates to both of required tasks and sometimes beyond these required tasks. However, employee creativity will be encouraged and fostered through empowerment process.

Consistent with the above mentioned approaches of empowerment and creativity, the present paper discusses the relationship between an integrated approach of empowerment and employee creativity. Figure 1 depicts the model. Theoretical Framework

In this section, we examine the relationships in an integrated approach of empowerment on employee creativity. Specifically, we examine the relationship between empowering leadership and empowerment climate; empowerment leadership and psychosocial empowerment, and empowering leadership and creativity. Besides, investigate how empowerment climate influence psychological empowerment. Lastly, we examine the core relationship between psychological empowerment and creativity

An Integrated approach of Employee Empowerment and Creativity Empowering Leadership and Empowerment Climate

Empowerment climate has been defined as “employees’ shared perceptions of managerial structures, policies, and practices related to empowerment” (Seibert et al., p.333, 2004). Therefore, it is capture the empowerment practices in the organization. Such as, Job autonomy (Atwater & Carmeli, 2009); participative decision making (Dewettinck & Ameijde, 2011) or delegation (Chen & Aryee, 2007). Although, there is a dearth of studies regarding the relationship between empowering leadership and empowerment climate. Conceptually, we can capture the relationship between empowering leadership and empowerment climate. empowering leaders express confidence in employees, foster participation in the decision making process and provide job autonomy in the workplace, these leadership components and behaviours will positively influence the shared perception of employees towards these practices. Thus, improve the empowerment climate (Wallace et al., 2011). Empowering Leadership and Psychological empowerment In the same manner, empowering leadership enhance various dimensions for psychological empowerment (meaning, impact and self-determination). Besides, it will increase employees' sense of competence or self-efficacy (Chang et al. 2013). For instance, empowering leaders will enhance the meaningfulness of work and provide autonomy for their employees, such practices will positively influence the psychological state of mind for


144

employees and make employees recognize the meaning of their work and realize that they are self-determined employees in the organization (Pearce et al., 2003; Zhang and Bartol, 2010). Empowerment Climate, Psychological Empowerment and Employee Creativity

While, empowerment climate is the mutual perception of employees regarding the

managerial practices in the workplace. Psychological empowerment is the employees' understanding and response of these conditions (Zhang and Bartol, 2010). In other words, the shared perception of empowerment in the workplace, produces major changes in the employees' psychological state of mind. Thus, influence employees' creativity (Laschinger et al., 2004). Put another way, psychological empowerment is the reflection of empowerment climate conditions on the employees' behaviour. Consequently, empowered employees consider themselves as more capable to do their work on their own. Due to this, employees can try to find creative approaches to perform their duties. To dig deep with more exposure to one of the psychological empowerment dimension (i.e. meaning) and their influence on creativity. Psychologically empowered employees realize that their work has a meaning and important to them will exert extra effort to understand the duties of their work to generate creative activities while accomplishing their tasks (Shalley & Gilson, 2004). Empowering Leadership and Employee Creativity

We can trace he relationship between empowering leadership and employee creativity, that empowering leadership practices energize, support and cultivate the empowerment climate. Which in turn influence psychological empowerment. That is, the employees' reaction to empowerment climate conditions. Thus, influence employee creativity. Simultaneously, empowering leadership has a direct influence on psychological empowerment of employees (Zhang and Bartol, 2010). For more illustration, employees will be psychologically empowered and motivated by empowering leaders' practices and behaviour. Put another way, empowering leaders provide autonomy to their employees in the workplace, which in turn make employees to recognize that they are autonomous and have a freedom to produce novel and creative ideas (Gange & Deci, 2005). Supporting this point, Ahearne et al. (2005) highlighted practices and behaviours of empowering leadership that are related to creativity. Specifically, providing autonomy in the workplace, encourage employees to participate in the decision making. These practices by empowering leaders are strongly related to creativity. To emphasis this point, creativity literature found that job autonomy and participation in the decision making are antecedents for employee creativity (Amabile, 1988; Amabile et al., 2004; Coveney, 2008; Lin and Liu, 2012). Conclusion

This paper contributes to the literature by explaining how this mixture of theories are consolidated it together. An integrated approach of empowerment suggested to combine


145

different approaches of empowerment. Namely, empowering leadership, empowerment climate, and psychological empowerment to investigate their influence on creativity of employees. Our research direct us to realize that there are relationships between empowerment variables. Such as, empowerment climate and psychological empowerment have a mediating role between empowering leadership and employee creativity. Empowerment climate has a direct influence on psychological empowerment, and indirect influence on employee creativity via psychological empowerment. Whereas, psychological empowerment has a direct influence on employee creativity. These findings proposed how an integrative approach of empowerment can be utilized, and extend previous studied on the affect of different empowerment variables on employee creativity. Future research should investigate various antecedents of psychological empowerment. Besides, examine the influence of different organizational factors on employee creativity. References: Ahearne, M., Mathieu, J., & Rapp, A. To empower or not to empower your sales force? An empirical examination of the influence of leadership empowerment behavior on customer satisfaction and performance: Journal of Applied Psychology, 2005. Amabile, T. M. A model of creativity and innovation in organizations: Research in Organizational Behavior, 1988. Amabile, T. M. Creativity in context: Update to the social psychology of creativity. Colorado, Amabile, T. M., Schatzel, E. A., Moneta, G. B., & Kramer, S. J. Leader behaviors and the work environment for creativity: Perceived leader support: The Leadership Quarterly, 2004. Avey JB, Hughes LW, Norman SM, Luthans KW. Using positivity, transformational leadership and empowerment to combat employee negativity: Leadership & Organization Development Journal. 2008. Atwater, L., & Carmeli, A. Leader–member exchange, feelings of energy, and involvement in creative work: The Leadership Quarterly, 2009. Carmeli, A., Schaubroeck, J. & Tishler, A. How CEO empowering leadership shapes top management team processes: Implications for firm performance: The Leadership Quarterly, Chang, Y., Tung, H., & Lin, C.T. Empowering leadership on team performance: Under the influence of knowledge sharing and team Cohesion: Business and Information, 2013. Cheung, M. F. Y., & Wong, C.-S. Transformational leadership, leader support, and employee creativity: Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 2011. Chen, Z. X., & Aryee, S. Delegation and employee work outcomes: An examination of the cultural context of mediating processes in China: Academy of Management Journal, 2007. Cho, T., & Faerman, S. R. An integrative model of empowerment and individual's in-role and extra-role performance in the Korean public sector: Moderating effects of organizational individualism and collectivism: International Public Management Journal, 2010. Conger, J. A., & Kanungo, R. N. The empowerment process: Integrating theory and practice: Academy of Management Review, 1988. Coveney, B. Assessing the organisational climate for creativity in a UK Public Library Service: a case study, 2008. Dierendonck, D. & Dijkstra, M. The Role of the Follower in the Relationship Between Empowering Leadership and Empowerment: A Longitudinal Investigation: Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 2012. Gagne, M., & Deci, E. L. Self-determination theory and work motivation: Journal of Organizational Behavior, 2005. Gill, A., Stephen., F., Smita., B .,Mand, H, and Sharma, S. The relationship between transformational leadership and employee desire for empowerment: International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 2010. Hackman, J.R., & Oldham, G.R. Work redesign. Reading: Addison-Wesley, 1980.


146

Kirkman, B. L., & Rosen, B. Beyond self-management: Antecedents and consequences of team empowerment: Academy of Management Journal, 1999 Laschinger, H. K. S., Finegan, J. E., Shamian, J., & Wilk, P. A longitudinal analysis of the impact of workplace empowerment on work satisfaction: Journal of Organizational Behavior, Lawler, E. E. The Ultimate Advantage: Creating the High- Involvement Organization. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1992. Liu, D., Zhang, S., Wang, L., & Lee, T. W. The effects of autonomy and empowerment on employee turnover: test of a multilevel model in teams. The Journal of Applied Psychology. Mathieu, J. E., Gilson, L. L., & Ruddy, T. M. Empowerment and team effectiveness: An empirical test of an integrated model: Journal of Applied Psychology, 2006. Oldham, G. R., & Cummings, A. Employee creativity: Personal and contextual factors at work: Academy of Management Journal, 1996. Pearce, C.L., Sims, H.P. Jr, Cox, J.F., Ball, G., Schnell, K.A., Smith, K.A. and Trevino, L. Transactors, transformers and beyond: a multi-method development of a theoretical typology of leadership: Journal of Management Development, 2003. Seibert, S. E., Silver, S. R., & Randolph, W. A. Taking empowerment to the next level: A multiple-level model of empowerment, performance, and satisfaction: Academy of Management Journal, 2004. Seibert, S. E., Wang, G., & Courtright, S. H. Antecedents and consequences of psychological and team empowerment in organizations: a meta-analytic review: The Journal of Applied Psychology, 2011. Shalley, C. E., & Gilson, L. L. What leaders need to know: A review of social and contextual factors that can foster or hinder creativity: The Leadership Quarterly, 2004. Shalley, C. E., Zhou, J., & Oldham, G. R.The effects of personal and contextual characteristics on creativity: Where should we go from here?: Journal of Management, 2004. Sprietzer, G.M. Psychological Empowerment in The Workplace: Dimensions, Measurement, and Validation: Academy of Management Journal, 1995. Spreitzer, G. M. Social structural characteristics of psychological empowerment: Academy of Management Journal, 1996. Spreitzer, G. M. Taking stock: A review of more than twenty years of research on empowerment at work. The handbook of organizational behavior: Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2007. Sun, L.-Y., Zhang, Z., Qi, J., and Chen., Z. Empowerment and creativity: A cross-level investigation: The Leadership Quarterly, 2012. Tierney, P. Leadership and employee creativity. In J. Zhou, & C. E. Shalley (Eds.), Handbook of organizational creativity. New York: Erlbaum, 2008. Vecchio, R.P., Justin, J.E. & Pearce, C.L. Empowering leadership: An examination of mediating mechanisms within a hierarchical structure: The Leadership Quarterly, 2010. Wallace, J. C., Johnson, P. D., Mathe, K., & Paul, J. Structural and psychological empowerment climates, performance, and the moderating role of shared felt accountability: a managerial perspective: The Journal of Applied Psychology, 2011. Walumbwa, F. O., Wang, P., Wang, H., Schaubroeck, J., & Avolio, B. J. Psychological processes linking authentic leadership to follower behaviors: The Leadership Quarterly. 2010. Yang, S.-B. & Choi, S.O. Employee empowerment and team performance: Autonomy, responsibility, information, and creativity: Team Performance Management, 2009. Zhang, X., & Bartol, K. M. Linking empowering leadership and employee creativity: The influence of psychological empowerment, intrinsic motivation, and creative process engagement: Academy of Management Journal, 2010.


147

COMPULSIVE BUYING AND ELDERLY MEN: DEPRESSION, COPING STRATEGIES AND SOCIAL

SUPPORT

Loredana Varveri, PhD Cinzia Novara, Prof.

Valentina Petralia, PhD Floriana Romano, PhD

Gioacchino Lavanco, Prof. University of Palermo, Italy

Abstract Old age is characterized by great changes that become real challenges that the person

must overcome in order to effectively end his evolutionary process. Particulary, the most stressful events for the elderly are the social economic decline, the deterioration of health and the loss of loved ones. It is therefore important to consider the strategies chosen by the elderly person to cope with such tasks; these strategies, if not effective, result in a developmental failure. The objective of this research was to analyze the relantionship among geriatric depression, coping strategies and levels of problematic shopping in elderly male subjects. The research involved 120 men over 60’. The choice of only elderly men is related to the idea that compulsive buying – which is usually associated with young people and females – is rarely examined in men because we generally think that they can cope better with critical events that women, using manly coping strategies (such as sport, gambling etc.). The shopping in its problematic form, affects 29% of involved subjects and becomes the means used to avoid coping with feelings and dealing with problems directly. The research finds a significant correlation between problematic shopping and depression, prooving in this way the existence of a link between how the person truly feels about his life and the use he does in relation with that of the shopping it self.

Keywords: Compulsive shopping, elderly men, coping strategies, depression, social support Introduction

Compulsive shopping is a disorder by which an individual is compelled to make a purchase; some authors describe it as a form of compulsion, others as a new addiction. It is not yet been included between the Addictive Disorders of current version of the DSM (APA, 2013), but the present work is based on a theoretical model that considers the compulsive buying as a behavioural addiction, a pathological custom associated to a behaviour characterised by an abiding impulse to buy, a compulsion to go shops, a personal addiction oriented to an activity that ends in the loss of behaviour control, failures in controlling and revising the activity and significant affective consequences, when the action is not feasible, at the individual and social levels (Krych, 1989). However, due to the still existing confusion about the said disorder, in this article we use the terms “interchangeably” as compulsive shopping, buying addiction, compulsive buying, compulsive buying disorder. Instead, if we focus on the common language spoken we find that the english term “shopping”, although is usually used as a synonym for “buying”, it actually expresses a different and wider meaning that containes the sense and the gist of the purchase in the modern and post modern society:


148

not just a simple action dictated by necessitates or needs, but a real experience moved by desires, dreams and pleasure which might undertake problematic behaviours.

The problematic buying was described for the first time by Kraepelin (1915) who introduced the term “oniomania” (from the Greek word ōneîsthai, impulse for buying things) in relation to excessive buying behaviours; afterwards the subject was resumed by Bleuer (1924): the author delineated some of the characteristics of the compulsive buyer, such as his/her tendency to contract nonsensical debts, delay payments and deny any debt.

In the 80s the interest towards this type of disorder is influenced by psychodynamic psychology approaches embraced by authors such as Winestine (1985) who identified primary conflicts in childhood and lack of sense of security as the main cause of compulsive shopping; Krueger (1988) approached the addictive behaviour as an emotion-regulating mechanism and a way to reinstate the psychological equilibrium in people with a fragmented auto perception. Albeit an ever growing interest about this syndrome thanks to the aforementioned authors, the combined efforts of psychosocial research about the buyer’s behaviour and the clinical research were needed in order to consolidate the subject.

Pioneers of this approach were Valence, d’Astous and Fortier (1988) according to whom the primary function of the buyin resides in its capability to reduce pressure in the individual and giving him/her a false sense of security of his/her own self-esteem and emotional nature.

In the 90s progress was made thanks to Christenson together with Faber and other authors (1994) who adopted an operant conditioning approach to explain the inner reasons behind excessive buying behaviours: firstly, individuals experience a relief of their negative emotions, subsequently they keep showing this learnt behaviour as a way to self-medicate every time they might face negative emotions.

Afterwards, Edwards (1993) identified low self-esteem and dysfunctional communication as possible precursors of the syndrome, and finally Cole (1995) studied the compulsive parental behaviour, the use of gifts as mechanisms to compensate children’s negative feelings and offer a substitute to the fatherly figure.

Our contribution to research on buying addiction has focused its interest on the specific target that is elderly male adults, following dissertation around existing studies and an experimental approach, which has been, however little, nonetheless a starting point on which to plant the seed of future works and contributions. Our research has chosen to focus on the “Elderly Male Adult” as outlined in Erik Erikson’s “Childhood and Society” (1950), a work on the development of the individual. The Author sees old age as the last step of the development process where the transition from one step to the other is determined by the achievement or failure of tasks or crisis points that occur throughout this period; the positive outcome for every step is determined, according to Erikson, by the modality in which each of the previous steps has been overcome and by the competencies that this continuous process has given to the individual. These competencies are, in fact, identified by the Author as coping strategies needed to overcome any crisis or as a task given to the individual to help him adapt to change. The use of wrong coping strategies can result in an arrest in the development of the individual and even a fragmentation of his individuality.

Secondly, we have chosen a male-only group of individuals following the late contributions on gender stereotypes (Ruspini, 2003) that is those social impositions which demand specific behaviours of men and women and influence their reactions to those. This has led to the idea that some forms of syndrome socially associated to women, such as compulsive shopping (d’Astous, 1990; Scherhorn, 1990; Christenson et al., 1994), are reluctantly applied to men due to the false myth of a reduced emotional spectrum on their behalf, whilst women are believed to be coping with stress by showing behaviours such as practising sport, travelling, gambling etc. In clinical practice this stereotype can become the source of a prejudiced diagnosis of individuals that are commonly excluded from it.


149

For all these reasons, we have associated the elderly man to two stereotypes: age and gender, which instead separate the clinical aspect from the environment and the individual himself from a quick and effective diagnosis of the disorder.

A Dissertation Around The Shopping Self-Evaluation Role, Geriatric Depression and Coping Strategies Based on these considerations three variables have been identified, together with their reciprocal relationship: compulsive shopping, geriatric depression and coping mechanisms used. On this basis we have tried to understand how a defined-size group lives its own senility, the shopping experience, the troubles of life and how these factors mutually influence one another. So, our study has pursued three objectives: • Understand, from a different and yet pathological point of view, whether buying can have a compensation and self-evaluation role in those individuals who, once they’re over a certain age, try new ways to reinvent their own identity or to adapt to the acquired one; • Undestand whether depression levels in the same individuals can influence the frequency or the value given to the shopping experience; • Understand whether preferred coping strategies are the same ones as those used generally in a pathological context. In order to understand what role is recovered by the shopping in the self-esteem individual evaluation, it is necessary make a premise regarding the concept of Self. The concept of Self discrepancy was introduced by Higgins (1987) who a little way after Markus and Nurius (1986) took back and developed his work by elaborating the Discrepancies Theory: the author in fact proposed a model of three different selves developt along the individual life: • Currently Self corrispondent to the self rappresentation that an individual actually has; • Ideal Self corrispondent to the self rappresentation that an individual would like to has; • Imperative Self corrispondent to the self rappresentation that an individual thinks must has. The lack of corrispondence of the Ideal Self and the Imperative Self with the Currently Self creates discrepancies in the perception that an individual can have of himself: the more the incompatibility among the selves is high, the more disadvantages will be express throught sadness and depression (in case of strong discrepancy between currently and ideal self) or anxiety (in case of strong discrepancy between currently and imperative) (Higgins, 1987). Helga Dittmar (2005), in most recent studies, elected the self discrepancy as predictive variable of the compulsive buying, designing a model according to which, in case of high discrepancies, the individual will realize impulsive buying more often to make him self feel better and reduce the distance between the two self poles.

The second variable analyzed in this study is the geriatric depression. Depressioni is the most common disease among elderly subjects (Swanwick, 2011), in general we can affirm that it presents a psychic state characterized by a low affective tone, the lack of initiative and negative tendency. The previous works that try to prove the depression role as antecedent of the compulsive buying disorder belong to Valence, d’Astous and Fortier (1988), starting from the hypothesys that the most part of the compulsive buyers came from families where at least one member shows depressive features. In a later study conducted by Edwards (1992), it was verified that the depressive states influence as antecedent the compulsive behaviour. Among the predictives variables, there are no doubts that the loss of motor abilities, the lack of social support and loneliness appear to be as the main and most common variables in rising of the disease it self. A primary place belongs to the progressive loss of motor abilites, often connected with the interruption of the physical activity usually done or with the rising of an handicap. In parallel with the loss of motor abilities, also can happen the loss of the independence; this could be at different levels: total, in presence of grave motor deficits


150

which require a constantly controll, half-total in presence of deficits which requires a daily support but non constanly, and finally partial in presence of motor deficits which require just a distance support.

In the individual life the social networks execute three main roles: first collaborates on the creation of the individual identity by giving model that the individual can use to identify and compare him self; secondly, fit the integration need of the human being by giving groups that people feel to belong to and over investing their fidelity and energies, reinforcing in this way their own identities. Last, they support the person throught a feeling of assurance that whatever adversity or crysis happens, is possibile having the help or the support of anybody (Lavanco, Novara, 2012). The social networks, when face the moment of crysis experied by the elder because the loss of the social and parental role or because physical illnesses, should support and embrace properly the person by giving him trust, sympathy, encouragement to the expression of feeling and advices proposals (De Leo, 1994).

In a conducted study, Oxman et al. (1992) maintained that a proper emotive support and a dense social networks were clearly connected to the riduction of depression levels. Lately a study conducted by Pierce and Lakey (1997) over 65 years old people, proved an other significative relationship between low levels of social suppor and high levels of depressive states. Most recently studies conducted by Berg et al. (2007), proved that the social support has a main role in the coping of stressful events because it offers overall a network where the individual can compare him self and activetely collaborate at his own developt.

A third disadvantage due to the ageing, here presented, is the progressive loneliness that individuals experience; in fact they assist at the loss of beloved people, the loss of their job throught the retirement, the moved away of the sons and widowhood. In this stage of life, the individual is often pervade by a frequently sense of loneliness, an empiness that tends to cover, throught compensatory behaviours like the assumption of substance inhibiting the depression or the involvement in different activities like binge eating, gambling or the compulsive shopping of object evocating the past or lost love and pleasure. Due to the high tendency of the compulsive buyers to use compensatory behaviours, it doesn’t surprise that they try to eliminate the loneliness and all the negative feelings associated to them by using the money not just as an instrument to buy goods but also as a trick for women that, to escape the poorness, would accept a marriage of convenience.

The third variable here presented is the coping stategies; the word coping refers to all those cognitive and behavioural efforts aimed at the managing and resolution of stressful events (Folkman, Lazarus, 1980). In the compulsive buying among elderlies case, it might show it self as a strategy used by the individual to face depression and stressfull events; the material abundance would cover the emptiness left in the person life by the loss of the job or the beloved, trying in this way to satisfy the loss and the changes experimented. One possible male reaction to the social change is the attachment to stereotype virility model where the man is powerful, homophobic (intolerance toward minorities) and essential for the survival, features that the individual might feel as lacking in him self during this phase of life, living a strong self-esteem decrease and depression; this lack would be resolved throught the compulsive buying of things invoking those features. In particular, the picture of the man as breadwinner is the one most damaged by the retirement; following is possible assist to a loss of the masculinity turned into compensatory behaviours such as the buying of expensive cars, elettronics, antiques. All fields where the prevailing is still strongly male. Method Individuals

Our research has targeted a group of 120 adult males aged ≥ 60 y.o., who were recruited in Villabate (Palermo, Sicily, Italy) CAF Centre and the “The Elderly Club” after they had given their consent to take part.


151

Villabate is a small village located about 8 km southest of the sicilian capital Palermo, it has a population of about 19,441 and an area of about 4 km. It has been chosen as area of interest, for the present research, due to the local elderly comunity and its represents (The Elderly Club for example) who have showed, during the screening period for the possible places to conduct the interviews where, a general willingness to cooperate with the town’s university in order to give a contribution to the general knowledge acquire by the Department of Psychology. Research protocol The research protocol consists:

Problematic Shopping Scale (PSS) (Varveri, Di Nuovo, Lavanco, in press), is an italian instrument finalised to evaluate levels of problematicity in buying behaviours; it is made of 22 items that a subject is asked to evaluate, on a 5-point-scale basis, the frequency of thoughts and behaviours resulting in their shopping. The validity trials have indicated that the PSS has good psychometric properties in terms of construct validity, concurrent and reliability. The high levels of reliability and internal coherence (Cronbach alpha = 0,92), allow to considerate it as an helpful an flexible instrument for the valuation of the buying behaviour, prevalent concerning, at the moment, just research fields.

Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS) (Endler, Parker, 1990), is an instrument finalised to evaluate the multidimentional aspects of coping and is articulated in three scales, each of which is composed of 16 items: the problem-centred scale, which decribes the efforts to solve a problem by restructuring it from a cognitive point of view or by trying to alter the situation, the emotion-centred scale, which described the self-orientated emotional reactions to reduce stress, and the avoidance-centred coping scale, which describes activities and cognitive changes finalised at avoiding the stressful situation. The latest one includes two sub-scales: the Distraction sub-scale, which describes a form of coping finalised at avoiding a stressful situation by distracting the self with other situations, and the Social Diversion sub-scale, which decribes a coping finalised at avoiding a stressful situation by common socialising.

Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) (Yesavage et al., 1983), is one of the scales most widely used to identify and distinguish the symptoms of depression in the elderly population. The test is composed by 30 items for each of which the subject is asked to dicotomically answer yes or no on his own living conditions; the final score enables to distinguish amongst absence of depression, mild depression and severe depression. A questionnaire has been administered in order to collect socio-anagraphic data such as age, education, occupation as well as some information regarding buying habits such as the frequency and time dedicated to it, so that a possible comparative analysis of the collected data and the protocol-based tests could be done. Regarding the screening, uncompleted and partially fullfilled protocols were excluded; data were analyzed by SPSS software. Results

The analysis of the socio-anagraphic questionnaire has established that 57% of the group is married, 20% is widowed, 13% divorced, 5% separated and 5% single; also, 35% possess a post-elementary education, 25% a secondary education, 21% a university degree, 17% have got only elementary education, and 2% declared alternative educational studies. Analysing the data collected through the administration of the PPS it has emerged that 71% of the subjects involved does not show problematic buying behaviours, whilst 29% has a borderline tendency to pathological behaviours (Table 1).


152

Table 1. Scores obtained by the subjects at Problematic Shopping Scale PSS % Lack of buying addiction 71 Problematic buying behaviours (risk of buying addiction)

29

Tot 100

Problematic buying behaviours show a positive correlation with the frequency of buying (r=-37, p=0,05), whilst there is no significant correlation between PSS scores and the time variable. Analysing the data collected through the administration of the CISS we came across some interesting results: the interviewed subjects showed, on average, lower scores on the situation-based coping mechanism, slightly higher scores on the emotion-based coping mechanism, and much higher ones on avoidance-based coping mechanism, on both sub-scales and especially on the social-based one (Table 2). These results show, indeed, that the group involved has, on average, the tendency to avoid any problem that may arise, instead they try to lever with their own emotions and, moreover, to avoid any problems by engaging in alternative activities or in the relationship with other people. Table 2. Comparison between the scores obtained at the CISS scale by the group involved and the refering group

Finally, subjects were administered the GDS to evaluate the presence of possible

symptoms of depression; from the analysis of the data it has emerged that 36% of the subjects does not show symptoms of depression, 25% has mild depression, and a significant 39% shows severe symptoms of depression (Table 3).

Table 3. Scores obtained by the subjects at the Geritatric Depression Scale GDS % Lack of Depression 36 Medium Depression 25 High Depression 39 Tot 100

Our research has tried to explore possible relationships amongst levels of

problematicity connected to buying, levels of depression and the different coping strategies adopted.

The levels of problematicity of buying behaviours show a negative correlation with the situation-based coping mechanism, whilst they show a positive correlation with the emotion-based – the tendency to indulge in emotions – and avoidance-based coping mechanism, although for what the avoidance-based coping mechanism is concerned, the correlation is significant only in relation to the social distraction coping mechanisms, in other words the tendency to avoid the threat of stressful situations getting involved in activities that deflect the attention from the problem. We gather that shopping is indeed an avoidance-based coping mechanism finalised at ignoring any problems or negative feelings among the elderly population; moreover, the levels of problematicity of buying behaviours show a significant correlation with the levels of depression observed in the GDS results: the higher the level of depression is, the higher is the tendency to use the buying in a problematic compulsive manner (Table 4).

CISS Group Involved Refering Group MEDIA D.S. MEDIA D.S.

Situation 55.54 7.6 57.03 9.51 Emotion 45.56 10 44.03 11.5 Avoidant 47.47 9.8 41.5 11.6 Distraction 21.20 6.2 18.3 6.4 Social Diversion 26.27 5.2 15.69 5.11


153

Table 4. Comparison between the scores obtained by the subjects at the PSS, the GDS and the CISS Pearson’s Correlation

GDS COPING SITUATION

COPING EMOTION

COPING AVOIDANT

COPING DIVERTION

COPING DISTRACTION

PSS ,514** -,212* ,455** ,468** ,167 ,593** *The correlation is meaningful at level p<0.01 **The correlation is meaningful at level p<0.05

A most exhaustive analysis of the data found has been realized through multiple

regressions, using, as problematic shopping predictors, the GDS scores and several scores from the CISS subscales.

The selected method stepwise has selected, as significant, the follow predictors: - The GDS scores show a significant relationship positively correlated with the shopping issues (regression coefficient 0.380; p<0.0001); the result conferms how depressive states could be considered as antecedents of the compulsive buying disorder (Valence, d’Astous, Fortier, 1988; Edwards, 1992);

The partecipants with higher PSS scores tend to have higher avoidant coping levels and, in particular, to be involved in activities direct to get by stressful situations (regression coheficient 0.593; p<0.0001).

Finally, as said before, the PPS has allowed to identify the risk subjects group, consisting of 35 subjects (29% of the involved group), then the risk subjects have been compared to the unrisk ones, extracted from a general sampling, and individually balanced according age, marriage relationship and education level. Regarding the difference between the two group in relation to the coping strategies, the situation coping orienteed dimension is significantly higher among the unrisk subjects group, whilst the emotion oriented and the avoidant oriented dimensions are significantly lower among the same group people (respectively, t=- 5,840; df=68; p<0.0001 and t=-4,684; df=68; p<0.0001). Specifically, regarding this last subscale, the significative difference between the two groups continues to be relative to the avoidant through activities (t=-7,789, df=68; p<0.0001), and the shopping seems to fit in those ones. The depression levels, at the same way, result significantly higher in the risk group (t=-5,734; df=68; p<0.0001) (Table 5).

Table 5. Comparison between the scores obtained by the respondants at the GDS and the CISS t df Sig. GDS -5.734 68 .037 COPING SITUATION

2.124 68 .000

COPING EMOTION

-5.840 68 .000

COPING AVOIDANT

-4.684 68 .000

COPING DIVERTION

-1.356 68 .125

COPING DISTRACTION

-7,789 68 .000

Lastly, the risk subjects realize buying behaviours most frequently respect the unrisk

ones (t= -3,649; df=68; p<0.0001); the result conferms how the shopping frequency represents an important predictors about the possibility that the relationship with the buying attitude could turn into a source of distress.

Briefly, the variables best discriminating the problematic shopping behaviour, respect the classification risk-unrisk, result: the avoidant coping orienteed, the presence of depressive state and the shopping frequency.


154

Conclusion The choice of a tiny sample (N=120) it was due more to the intention of using a loupes

on a micro universe such as the elderly one in order to catch those element that at first and greater sight could be missed or not detected because a common trend to not doing that.

A primary aim of this study was to verify whether buying can have a compensatory and self evaluation role in older men. Results showed as subjects with the tendency to cope with stress by focusing esclusively on the resolution of the stressful situation, have buying behaviours more adaptives respect those subject with the tendency to use coping strategies like Avoidance, Distraction and Social Diversion. These subjects tend to deny the existence of their addiction problems and suppress displeasure and unhappiness deep in their coscience; shopping undertakes for these subjects the meaning of transition object able to distract and delude them about the power they still have to control their life. This is confermed by the second aim of the present study which was to verify whether depression levels in the same individual can have influenced the frequency or value given to the shopping experience. We predicted correctly that the more the depression level rises, the more the tendency to use the buying in a problematic way gets high; this hyphothesis is supported by several studies (Valence, d’Astous, Fortier, 1988; Edward, 1992) who mantained that depression has a main role in the rising of the compulsive shopping disorder. Further the results showed that even the compulsive buying is significatively related to the frequency, it doesn’t show the same with the time variable. The correlation between the two variables undelies how these subjects perceive the shopping as a medication against sadness. What is pathological is not that these subject feel themselves as better after a casual shopping episode, but the seeking and repetition of the buying episode, deprive of casuality, every time negative emotions and feelings are perceived. The more they feel bad, the more they go shopping and the more the unadaptive behaviour gets fix at the level of the behavioural schemes. Finally, the third aim was to verify whether preferred coping strategies are the same one as those used generally in a pathological context. We predicted correctly that buying is one of the most used way to cope with negative feelings and stressful events among our subjects. This results were confermed also by previous studies (Martz, Livneh, 2007; Zeidner, Saklofske, 1996; Lazarus, Folkman, 1984) that have confermed as well as typicall coping strategies of the pathological context the avoidance, diversion and distraction brought by some activities like shopping, gambling, internet, binge eating and other in which the individual is free to forget what does upset him. First aid and professional help

Albeit the small research on the matter and the difficulty of recognising such a disease in the elderly male population , the addiction to buying becomes clear in the long run as it has consequences difficult to hide, such as debt, hoarding, withdrawal symptoms and superimposition of the buying experience on any other aspect of life. Often the individual and, most of all, the environment where the individual lives do not possess the correct means to deal with compulsive behaviour in an adequate and timely manner; for these reasons, the first recommendation is to seek professional advice through counselling or therapy so that a plan for intervention can be drawn.

Equally important is the need for the subject not to go shopping on his own, but always in the company of a family member who is aware of his problem and has got the necessary authority to stop possible excessive buying behaviours; the same importance must be given to the environment as a whole where specific strategies are put in place to prevent the compulsion so as not to aggravate an already tense state in which the suject is; of these strategies we can suggest paying in cash to keep track of the expense, cancelling any credit cards except one or two to be kept for emergency situations, making a detailed shopping list


155

and sticking to it when going around shopping and, finally, keep a diary of the products purchased so that possible excessive shopping can be easily identified. As well as the support offered by family members, the subject can make good use of professionals whose job is to offer care and support (Lavanco, Novara, 2012). Future recomandations

In order to prevent the onset of the compulsive disorder in elderly male adults some devices must be employed both in the individual primary (family, friends and colleagues) and secondary (institutional) context. In the familial context, the individual must perceive his life as active by getting involved in activities that, whenever possible, imply that the individual goes outside the house or, when this is not possible (i.e. the housebound), that he gets strongly involved in the running of the household. If the elderly person lives alone, he should be encouraged to cultivate interests and take part in activities promoted by clubs, associations and parishes within the community. Part of the individual’s primary group is also his GP who, being a clinical person, is able to identify abnormal signs in the patient’s mood that could hide possible depression.

From an institutional point of view, the SSN (the Italian National Health Service) should mostly promote information about the physical and psychological changes that patients face when growing old. This can be achieved, for instance, by distributing brochures in local primary care trusts or by public information campaigns on the subject which should be promoted by organisations and companies whose employees are close to the age of retirement and by making psychologists or counsellors available for them. Moreover, institutions could implement social utility programs aimed at actively involving elderly male adults so that structured (and therefore stable and continuous like a job) activities are offered instead of temporal and personal compensation.

Another setting where the promotion of prevention activities would be beneficial to any possible problematic buyers are places where they are more likely to be found: banks, post offices, CAF centres, shopping centres, all places where these individuals are directly exposed to a systematic self-observation (Varveri, Lavanco, 2005). The staff themselves, if correctly trained, can spot, in habitual customers, behaviours such as increased frequency of shopping, request for credit, delay in payments, nervousism and evident anxiety, and may ethically decide to inform the individual’s partner or someone close to him.

Moreover, although in modern times families are advised to use credit cards for purchasing goods, it is good practice for families to use cash so they can have a more tactile perception of what has been spent. References: American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing, 2013. Berg, C.A., Smith, T.W., Ko, K., Story, N., Beveridge, R.M., Allen, N., Florsheim, P., Pearce, G., Uchino, B., Skinner, M., and Glazer, K. Task control and cognitive abilities of self and spouse in collaboration in middle-aged and older couples. Psychology and Aging, 22, 420-427, 2007. Bleuer, E. Textbook of psychiatry. New York: Macmillan, 1924. Christenson, G. A., Faber, R. J., De Swann, M., Raymond, N. C., Specker, S. M., Ekern, M. D., Mackenzie, T. B., Crosby, R. D., Crow, S. J., Eckert, E. D., Mussell, M. P, and Mitchell, J. E. Compulsive buying: descriptive characteristics and psychiatric comorbidity. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 55(1), 5-11, 1994. Cole, L. K. Modeling the antecedents of compulsive buying. Phd thesis. Louisiana State University, 1995.


156

d’Astous, A. An Inquiry Into the Compulsive Side of Normal Consumers. Journal of Consumer Policy, 13(3), 15-32, 1990. De Leo, D. Manuale di psichiatria dell’anziano. Padova: Piccin, 1994. Dittmar, H. A new look at “compulsive buying”: self-discrepancy and materialist values as predictors of compulsive buying tendency. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, vol.24, 6:832-859, 2005. Edwards, E. A. The measurement and modeling of compulsive consumer buying behavior. Phd Thesis, University of Michigan, 1992. Edwards, E. A. Development of a new scale for measuring compulsive buying behaviour. Financial Counseling and Planning, 4, 67-84, 1993. Elliott, R. Addictive consumption: function and fragmentation in postmodernity. Journal of Consumer Policy, 17, 159-179, 1994. Endler, N. S., and Parker, J. D. A. Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS): Manual. Toronto: Multi Health Systems, 1990. Erikson, E.H. Childhood and Society. New York: Norton, 1950. Faber, R. J., and O’Guinn, T. C. A clinical screener for compulsive buying. Journal of Consumer Research, 19 (3), 459-460, 1992. Folkman, S., and Lazarus, R.S. An analysis of coping in a middle-aged community sample. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 21, 219-239, 1980. Higgins, T.E. Self-discrepancy: a theory relating self and affect, Psychological Review, vol. 94, 3, 319-340, 1987. Kraepelin, E. Psychiatrie (8th ed.). Leipzig: Verlag Johann Ambrosious Bart, 1915. Krueger, D.W. On Compulsive Shopping and Spending: A Psychodynamic Inquiry. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 42(10), 574-584, 1988. Krych, R. Abnormal consumer behavior: a model of addictive behaviors. Advances in Consumer Research, 16, 745-748, 1989. Lavanco, G., and Novara, C. Elementi di psicologia di comunità. (3th ed.) Milano: McGraw-Hill, 2012. Lazarus, R. S. and Folkman, S. Stress, appraisal and coping, Springer, New York, 1984. Markus, H., and Nurius P. Possible Selves. America Psychologist, 41 (9), 954-969, 1986. Martz, E., and Livneh, H. (eds.). Coping With Chronic Illness and Disability: Theoretical, Empirical, and Clinical Aspects. New York: Springer, 2007. Oxman,T., Berkman, L., Kasl, S., Freeman, D., and Barrett, J. Social support and depressive symptoms in the elderly. American Journal of Epidemiology, 135, 356-368, 1992. Pierce, G. R., and Lakey, B. Sourcebook of social support and personality. New York: Plenum Press, 1997. Ruspini, E. Le identità di genere. Roma: Carocci, 2003. Scherhorn, G. The addictive trait in buying behaviour. Journal of Consumer Policy, 13, 33-51, 1990. Swanwick, G. Assessment and treatment of depression in older adults. Irish Medical Times, 10, 2011. Valence, G., d’Astous, A., Fortier, L. Compulsive buying: concept and measurement. Journal of Consumer Policy, 11, 419-433, 1988. Varveri, L., Di Nuovo, S., and Lavanco, G. Compulsive buying disorder: reliability and construct validity of an assessment questionnaire. In press Varveri, L., and Lavanco, G. Shopping problematico e strategie di coping. Prevenzione del rischio e promozione di una cultura dello shopping. In Lavanco G., Novara C. (eds.), Marginalia. Milano: FrancoAngeli, 2005. Winestine, M. C. Compulsive Shopping as a derivative of a childhood seduction. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 54 (1), 70-72, 1985.


157

Yesavage, J. A., Brink, T. L., Rose, T. L., Lum, O., Huang, V., Adey, M. B., and Leirer, V. O. Development and validation of a geriatric depression screeningcale: A preliminary report. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 17, 37-49, 1983. Zeidner, M., and Saklofske, D. S. Adaptive and maladaptive coping. In M. Zeidner and N. S. Endler (eds.), Handbook of coping. New York: Wiley, 1996.


158

EXPLORING EVERYDAY URBAN ENVIRONMENT: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY IMMERSION INTO

UNDERSTANDING CITIES

Ruxandra Puscasu, PhD Candidate Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Abstract Similarly to other research fields in the arts and humanities, architecture stands for a

complex phenomenon which gathers a wide range of ideas and philosophies, theories and actions. But, more than anything else, architecture is also an inherently interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary practice, and is also inextricably related to people’s everyday life. Therefore, higher education and research in the broad field of architecture and planning must learn how to deal with a wide spectrum of concerns, all of which can potentially impact directly on people’s lives or on their perception of the surroundings. Relying on scholars such as Repko (2008) this research focuses on investigations into the ‘lived’ dimension of the city, as a general concept to be addressed and further included in the architecture education and research. This understanding considers the city as a symbiosis of the physical layout and its experiential / ‘soft’ (Raban 1974) one and, therefore, picturing it as a whole can help one reach a more comprehensive understanding of its true character. Ultimately, it discusses the relevance of rethinking traditional approaches and strategies of investigating the city. In doing so, an alternative method of exploring urban reality is conceptualized.

Keywords: Architectural humanities, mapping, spatial cognition Introduction

This interdisciplinary approach this paper provides defines the secondary objective of the PhD research I am currently conducting, and which focuses on exploring mechanisms through which a more comprehensive understanding of the relations between people, architecture and engaging with the fragmented body of the contemporary city can be achieved. In the last two centuries Romanian cities, especially those located outside the Carpathian Mountains, have been confronted with the succession of heterogeneous urban policies and projects. Consequently, their contemporary appearance stands for a superimposition of unfinished / fragmented history strata materialized in layers of physical memories (architectural evidences). The current physiognomy of the cities can be read as a juxtaposition of discontinuous spatial images. These features are visible both at the street level and in the urban fabric and belong to different temporal sequences. The contemporary broken coherency in the dialogue of the urban scenes is not regarded as a stigma on the city’s image. It describes the latter stage in their physiognomy and it can be considered a challenge to be read and understood as such. The city appears as a series of spatial unresolved conflicting relations or interactions among city fragments which are experienced daily by the inhabitants. Therefore, my research is concerned with shaping an alternative, adaptable and interdisciplinary method for investigating the palimpsest image of cities for further regeneration purposes, while relying on new visual mapping techniques.


159

Bringing the City Closer Interdisciplinary approach and learning has become far more common and it gains

recognition that it is needed to answer complex questions or to provide a more comprehensive and coherent understanding of issues situated increasingly beyond the ability of any single discipline to address adequately. Contextually, this paper focuses on explaining the meaning and importance of interdisciplinary studies in the field of architecture, and providing real examples of modes in which knowledge and concepts social sciences and humanities can be employed in this type of research, along with the understanding towards which they conduct. To begin with, there should be stated that interdisciplinarity concerns integration, which in this context (Repko 2008, 3-4) defines as ‘a process by which ideas, data and information, methods, tools, concepts and / or theories from two or more disciplines are synthesized, connected or blended’. Moreover, (Repko 2008,4) argues that ‘integrationist interdisciplinarians’ firmly believe that integration itself should be the main concern of interdisciplinarity as it addresses the challenge of complexity. The disciplines or the applied fields are not rigid or unchanging, but they are time-dependent. This investigation relies on a relational understanding of the city which depends on understanding the social, historical, cultural and spiritual context in which specific spaces were created and which also leads to knowing aspects related to the lived dimension of urban space.

My research emerges from the fascination to discover and examine the fragmentation as a contemporary condition of our cities. As Bernard Tschumi (1996, 23-24) argues, one is confronted with a contemporary world ‘which is a dislocated space of constraints that may find few common denominators’. Spaces in architecture and cities are fundamentally different from what they use to look like or to be conceived and, therefore, they have to be regarded and understood as such. Cities developed into spaces of continual changes as a consequence of the complexity of the everyday life. In Postmodern conscience they appear as places of spatial and temporal fragmentation in which the traditional modes of understanding them can no longer be applied. In recent years, the cultural turn in human geography or in spatial sciences encouraged exploration of the image of cities while engaging a variety of new media, digital visualization and spatial representation techniques and technologies (Hubbard 2006, 59).

The dynamic directions, movements and paradigms in architecture and urban planning, urban policies along with the historical background of cities are profoundly engaged in the transformations that occurred in urban fabric and, further extended to their physiognomy as a whole. Contextually, their contemporary appearance stands for a superimposition of unfinished / fragmented history strata materialized in layers of physical memories (architectural evidences). The current physiognomy of the cities can be read as a juxtaposition of discontinuous spatial images. These features are visible both at the street level and in the urban fabric which belong to different temporal sequences. The contemporary broken coherency in the dialogue of the urban scenes does not have to be regarded as a stigma on the cities’ image. It describes the latter stage in their physiognomy and it can be considered a challenge to be read and understood as such. It appears as a series of spatial unresolved conflicting relations or interactions among city fragments daily experienced by the inhabitants.

Additionally, this research is concerned with visually exploring the relationship and the boundaries between the ‘ideal space (the product of mental processes)’ and the ‘real space (the product of social praxis)’(Tschumi 1996, 32). Cities cannot be understood separately from the interaction between the physical space and its inhabitants. People’s perception of the urban space and their daily routine according to that perception are the ones who shape, influence and define life in the city. These elements can be defined as the unseen forces that mould the experienced / lived environment and have to be further investigated. As such, it aims to provide answers to questions such as ‘How can they be spatially and visually


160

rendered into maps?’ or ‘How can we explore the relationship between physical structure and “perceptual experience”?’ In doing that it interconnects knowledge and key concepts through means of architecture, human geography, anthropology, cartography and visually merges them into a research that investigates the particular way in which relations between people, place and architectural / cities’ space are (re)established.

The novelty and also the challenge in this particular case lays in the sought to avoid ‘the rigidities of traditional mapping’ by bringing into light also the ‘socio-spatial relations between the individuals’ as well as those between the individuals and the city.28 Delineating an interest towards a visual apprehending of both the ‘hard-edged’ side of the contemporary city and the ‘soft’ one is expected to bring to the forefront essential elements of the landscape that might otherwise be neglected.

Cities are complex organisms which are not to be understood in a singular way. Their distinct nature often requires the development of specific methods to describe and explain them (Hubbard 2006, 9). Knowing and understanding them means to engage in a deeper, ‘symbiotic relationship’ with them and with the spaces they provide (Leach 2002, 4). ‘The idea that cities require particular diagnostic tools and conceptual languages can be understood only in relation to the emergence of cities themselves as distinct and recognisable phenomena’(Hubbard 2006, 11).

They have reached a phase in which we are constantly confronted with a severe and continuous alteration of their (known) identity. In this respect, I would argue that the phenomenon that is faced is related to reshaping / recreating / rebuilding their identity using a contemporary language.

This thesis is primarily concerned with creating an alternative, adaptable and interdisciplinary method for investigating the palimpsest image of cities for further regeneration purposes, while using new visual mapping techniques.

This research is portrayed as a series of possible instructions for professionals (architects, urban planners) that conduct to a provocative understanding of urban realities. Relying on contemporary mapping theoretic approaches, technologies and projects, the research reveals and further investigates the invisible elements that shape our cities. The study aims to provide a deeper insight into cities’ life as a sequence of condensed histories than the conventional maps have the potential of revealing. Simultaneously, the multidimensionality of maps is also explored. Cities are visualized and stitched together from several maps of spatial images. Mechanisms through which a more comprehensive understanding of the relations between people, architecture and engaging with place / urban space can be achieved are investigated in this research. Furthermore, the mode through which historical and theoretical knowledge can enrich the morphological study’ is therefore explored.

Based upon new visual representation techniques, this research provides alternative readings of cities as conceptual evidences. It explores mapping as a ‘creative and inventive process’ which expose ‘the potential of maps to unfold’ spatial and temporal distant realities of cities (Amoroso 2010, xviii). Spatial and temporal fractures and incongruence in cities’ layers are expected to be overcome. Along with these, heterogeneous images / portraits of the “unseen” cities are contoured and explored. Experimental mapping tests are used to create a visual connection between the seen and the unseen side of cities as well as prediction tools through which their future can be shaped (Amoroso 2010,14).

The reliability of this praxis as design tools in defining the core of cities and to fill the gap in existing urban regeneration approaches is further investigating and explored, as a secondary object of the thesis. It is expected that stronger communicative tools that influence design and planning process and decisions are provided.


161

This research develops an interest in understanding the way in which the contemporary representational techniques can be used for investigating the ways individuals’ engage with their cities and to give them back in a visual mode. Interest has been shown to employ ‘the palimpsest’ as research methodology (Tschumi 1996, 191). This approach relies on the deconstruction of ‘what exists by critically analyzing the historical layers that preceded it, even adding other layers derived from elsewhere’(Tschumi 1996, 14). The tools involved in this experiencing of cities belong to an interdisciplinary combination between theories and techniques from architecture / planning / spatial design, digital representation and (urban) cognitive mapping. Cities are examined using plan-analysis and modern representation techniques, interviews, repeated field observations and sketches, maps and other forms of spatial manipulation provided by non-professionals.

The unseen urban forces that shape the experienced city are depicted from inhabitants’ discourses regarding aspects of their spatial routes and routines or their daily itineraries. The interviews are conducted based on contextually adapting and enriching the questions that (Lynch 1961) submitted for shaping the ‘imageability’ of New Jersey, Boston and Los Angeles. Additionally, groups of inhabitants’ are required to provide alternative maps and sketches of certain areas. The interest of this investigation lays into discovering the main visual icons around which the city is tailored at a perceptive level. Not of less importance is to verify whether the clarity of image its correspondence to the outside reality or its locational characteristic are respected and accurately represented.

Acknowledging the city as an overlapping of ‘material fabric’ that frames the lived of residents and an ‘individualized interpretation’ of the perceived city constitutes the primary focus of the discourse sequence / fragment (Dear and Flusty (eds.) 2002, 216). This particularized juxtaposition characterizes the distinctiveness in city’s images. ‘The city may well be different things to different people, but the forms of the city clearly favour some people’s urban visions at the expense of others. While place-making is about how we represent and use space, it is also about how varied perspectives on “what space should be” contend with one another (Dear and Flusty (eds.), 371).’ Conclusion

Essentially, the idea behind my research is to promote the engagement of concepts and approaches from social sciences and humanities into architectural research not only at a theoretical level. Today architecture theory and practice undergoes several creative transformations and requires a contemporary approach for the ongoing interdisciplinary challenges.

The ultimate purpose of this paper is to open up a wide range of possibilities and to introduce a variety of statements that lead to overcoming the current rigidity of architectural and educational approach and which ensures a controversial and multi-layered dialogue. References: Amoroso, N. 2010, The Exposed City, London: Routledge, 2010. Dear J. M. and Flusty S., Postmodern Urbanism, in Dear J. M. and Flusty S. (eds.) 2002, The Spaces of Postmodernity: Readings in Human Geography. Masade Massachussetts: Blackwell Publishers, 2002. Hubbard, P. The City. London:Routledge, 2006. Leach, N. (ed.). The Hieroglyphics of Space: Reading and Experiencing the Modern Metropolis. London: Routledge, 2002. Lynch, K. The Image of the City, Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1960. Ley D. and Mills C., Can There be A Postmodernism of Resistance in the Urban Landscape? in Dear J. M. and Flusty S. (eds.) The Spaces of Postmodernity: Readings in Human Geography. Masade Massachussetts: Blackwell Publishers, 2002.


162

Raban, J. The Soft City,Glasgow: William Collins Sons & Co Ltd, 1974. Repko, A. F. Interdisciplinary Research Process and Theory, London: Sage Publications, 2008. Tschumi, B. Architecture and Disjunction, London: The MIT Press, 1996.


163

THE ROLE OF KEY FACTORS OF TRAINING TRANSFER ON EMPLOYEE'S JOB PERFORMANCE: A REVIEW

Ibrahim Bin Zahari Tareq Fayeq Obaid

Graduate Business School, Universiti Tenaga National (UNITEN),Kajang,Selangor,Malaysia

Abstract

One of the most critical challenges facing the developing countries is the training and development of its people, employees are the one the critical strategic asset in any organization. By improving their employee’s skills at work environment, organizations can act as successful and highly compete within the domain of their courses of action. Not all employees are same in their working capacities and they have different modes of behavior regardless of the rewards. In order to judge the work performance of employee, the most common management practices employed, all over the world, is performance assessment. This research aims at investigating the impact of training transfer on job performance and how they correlate with each other within the context of Higher Education organizations in Palestine. Employees only seem to use knowledge, skills and attitudes from corporate training programs to a very limited extent at their workplaces. It has often been argued that training factors has a significant role in improving the performance, and what is the role of training transfer on the relationship, unfortunately, within Palestinian context there are ambiguity in previous research, thus the study recommend for future research to investigate the relationship between pre-training factors, training transfer and performance in Palestine within educational context.

Keywords: Pre-Training factors, training transfer, performance, Palestine and Higher Education Institution. Introduction

Continuing education must strengthen a broad range of critical competencies and skills if we are to ensure the further development and effectiveness of the job performance. However, many researchers argue that performance on job is a multidimensional construct that measured by work attitude like satisfaction and commitment (Kalyani, 2006; Armstrong, 2009).

Employees are the one the critical strategic asset in any organization. By improving their employees’ skills at work environment, organizations can act as successful and highly compete within the domain of their courses of action. According to McLean and McLean (2001, p. 322) “human resource development is any process or activity that, either initially or over the long term, has the potential to develop adults’ work-based knowledge, expertise, productivity, and satisfaction for the benefit of community, nation, or ultimately the whole of humanity”.

Not all employees are same in their working capacities and they have different modes of behavior regardless of the rewards. In order to judge the work performance of employee, the most common management practices employed, all over the world, is performance assessment. Within the large organization, performance appraisal system is exercised by more than 90%, whereas annual performance appraisal is employed in 75 % of medium size organizations (Ingraham and Jacobson, 2001). However, in an era of globalization, many


164

organizations have remodeled their paradigms from traditional job-based training to achieve organizational strategy and goals (Abdullah, Baroto , Ismail and Tat, 2011). The statistics from the Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education and the United Nations shows an outstanding increase in the enrollment rate among the Palestinian youths. The enrollment rate of students’ increased by 94% from 1993 to 2011; where the estimated number of students attending HEI in 1993 was 22,750 it rose into 213.973 in 2011 (Koni , A, Zainal, K and Ibrahim, 2012). The Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education came into existence in 1994 and Higher Education was legalized by law which grants every citizen the right to pursue higher education, “set the legal status of its institutions, and provided the legal framework for its organization and management” (Ministry of Higher Education, 2011). According to Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research report (2002) Palestinian National Authority, Palestinian HE institutions suffer from a serious shortage of funds to support their educational programs. They must seek stop gap funding to meet even the most basic of expenses. Most Palestinian universities run chronic deficits that average more than 10 percent of their total budgets. Almost all Palestinian universities have been forced to use their Staff Provident Funds (pensions) to cover their financial deficits.

The Palestinian Higher Education system is comprised of 49 accredited post-secondary education institutions distributed between the West Bank and Gaza Strip; 34 of those are located in the West Bank and range between traditional universities; university colleges, community colleges and an open university. According to Ministry of Higher Education Report (2011), these institutions employ 14,667 staff members between academic teaching staff, academic administrative staff and academic researcher staff (around 7476).

This study is importance in this era of public sector, especially now that Palestine needs to measure Higher Education performance and its impact on economic development. Educational development in Palestine is a unique, rich, and challenging experience. It’s unique because it is one of the very few places in the world. Herby, Ministry Higher Education built from scratch, rich because of the eagerness and motivation of the Palestinians to learn, challenging because Palestine is not yet an independent country and is witnessing conflict on a daily basis (Al Subu, 2009). Therefore, the study, therefore, seeks to explore possible strategies for evaluating training and development programs in higher education, particularly academic staff and administration personnel. The current research aims to review the related literature regarding the relationship among pre training transfer and job performance and the mediating role of training transfer. Literature Review Job Performance

Performance measurement is a fundamental building block of total quality management (TQM) and a total quality organization. Historically, organizations have always measured performance in some way through the financial performance, be this success by profit or failure through liquidation (Violet and Josiah, 2012). However, traditional performance measures, based on cost accounting information, provide little to support organizations on their quality journey, because they do not map process performance and improvements seen by the customer. In a successful total quality organization, performance will be measured by the improvements seen by the customer as well as by the results delivered to other stakeholders, such as the shareholders (Gupta, 2012). In this study job performance refers to actions and behaviors of an employee that contribute to the goals of the organization (Campbell, 1990).

Although, employee’s performance is important to gauge his work level in his working environment but it is very subjective to assess him with these types of attributes. As identified by Connolly and Viswesvaran (2000), very few studies have been conducted to develop a generalized theory to assess the performance. It was supposed that the level of


165

performance varies from job to job. Therefore, job performance may be measured by using number of performance indicators.

Performance during a job can be measured while considering the output or through examination of proper implementation of processes and procedure (Awadh and Wan Ismail, 2012). In some cases job performance assessment is very easy because performance objectives and goals are vibrant whereas, the jobs for which the goals and objectives are not clear are difficult to assess or measure the performance. However, to manage and evaluate individuals’ job performance in an organizational setting is the most challenging task and applied problems in the organization.

Although measurement problems and a debate about the sustainability of technology productivity growth remain, there is now a growing consensus that IT does have positive effects on labor and total factor productivity (Brynjolfsson and Hitt 2003). Communications technology can also have a positive impact on the relationships between stakeholders such employees, suppliers and customers. This can be done by improving the linkages of response times to questions, comments and concerns. It is expected from the technology to helps computerize activities that will help reduce the overloaded employees.

In an age when human capital is being recognized both inside and outside the realm of the HR, mainstreaming sustainability competencies will enable professionals to hone their skills as well as prepare for the business and organizational challenges that have yet to be defined(Kola Olusanya, 2013) . Many organizations spend much money on training, believing that training will improve their employees’ performance and hence the firm’s productivity (Yamnill and McLean, 2001).

Researchers have adopted various perspectives for studying performance. Sonnentag and Frese (2002) argued that on the most general level one can differentiate between three different perspectives: (1) an individual differences perspective which searches for individual characteristics (e.g., general mental ability, personality) as sources for variation in performance, (2) a situational perspective which focuses on situational aspects as facilitators and impediments for performance, and (3) a performance regulation perspective which describes the performance process.

The individual differences perspective focuses on performance differences between individuals and seeks to identify the underlying factors. The core question to be answered by this perspective is: Which individuals perform best. In addition, the situational perspective refers to factors in the individuals’ environment which stimulate and support or hinder performance. The core question to be answered is: In which situations do individuals perform best? The situational perspective encompasses approaches which focus on workplace factors but also specific motivational approaches which follow for example from expectancy theory (Vroom, 1964). Also, Sonnentag and Frese (2002) continue to mention that the performance regulation perspective takes a different look at individual performance and is less interested in person or situational predictors of performance. Rather, this perspective focuses on the performance process itself and conceptualizes it as an action process. It addresses as its core questions: ‘How does the performance process look like?. Pre Training Factors

Kontoghiorghes (2002) confirmed that to achieve successful training transfer to the workplace, the training program must be relevant to the job. Also, Nikandrou et al. (2009) the planning of the training program is very important for its total success and therefore for training transfer at work as well as the acquisition of knowledge and skills.

There have been several attempts to study transfer of training at the individual level. They identify many characteristics for the trainee such as the motivation of the person to learn and transfer the skills to his work and commitment (Kontoghiorghes, 2002). Research has


166

shown that the characteristics of the trainee’s personality directly affect the training process and training transfer (Warr et al., 1999).

Work environment variables have only received increased attention in the last two decades, much to the literature’s detriment since this group of variables is significantly influential for enhancing transfer (Burke, and Hutchins, 2007). If the work environment does not provide a means to support the transfer of new knowledge, this knowledge will soon be forgotten by the trainee and become irrelevant.

In the work of aforementioned researchers, commitment has been considered as the one of the most important aspects to recognize on the job behaviors of an employee. There are limited number of studies have been conducted to explore different perspectives of organizational commitment. Most of these studies have mainly concern with the attitudinal perspective. It was found that this perspective is one of the highly mentioned variables between behavioral approaches.

Riketta (2002) pointed out that the organizational commitment has proven to a considerable effect on almost all the organizational behaviors such as performance. Several scholars showed a positive association between organizational commitment and training transfer. Training Transfer

Transfer of training can be defined as the application of knowledge, skills and attitudes learned from training on the job and subsequent maintenance of them over a certain period of time. The term training transfer is described as trainees effectively and continually applying the knowledge, skills, behaviors and cognitive strategies to the workplace (Noe, 2005). There are two levels of training transfer described by Noe, generalization training and maintenance training. Also, Barnard et al. (2001) stated that there are different forms of training transfer.

Positive transfer is regarded as the extent to which trainees have acquired knowledge and skills and attitudes. Conversely, negative is the extent to which undesired effects occurs after following a course. In this study the focus will be the positive training transfer. Positive transfer of training concerns the effective and continuing application, by trainees to their jobs, of the knowledge and skills gained in training (Broad and Newstrom, 1992). Transfer of training should thus be considered essential for training programmes to be effective and efficient, and intended return on investments in training programmes will only be achieved to the extent that training is transferred (Nijman et al., 2006).In measuring training transfer through evaluation, Garavaglia (1993) considers the following aspects:

You can choose from many methods for measuring transfer of training. Each needs to focus on the training outcome, which usually must be changed behavior. One method for measuring changed behavior is obtain reports from supervisors. Supervisors are in excellent positions to provide data about trainees’ strengths and weaknesses. Also, supervisors can report changes in the duties and tasks trainees perform on the job. Requesting information from supervisor or get them involved in the process, and the data they provide tend to be relevant.

Transfer of training is an important concern for training researchers and practitioners because it is estimated that only a small percentage of the training actually results in transfer to the job (Baldwin and Ford, 1988). Wexley and Latham (2002) suggest that about 40 percent of content is transferred immediately following training. However, the transference falls to 25 percent after six months and 15 percent after one year. This suggests that as time passes, trainees are unable to retain and use the information gained in the training programme. Furthermore, this indicates that much of the time and money invested in training is never fully realized.

For some two decades, researchers have noted the dismal rate of transfer in organizations in what has become known as the “transfer problem” and have continued to


167

report that only about 10% of learning transfers to the job (Fitzpatrick, 2001). Saks and Belcourt (2006) suggest that the transfer problem has improved somewhat beyond the 10% figure. Saks and Belcourt found that 62% of employees apply what they learn in training immediately after attending a training program. However, after six months, only 44% apply the training material, and after one year, only a third (or 34%) still using what they have learned in training on the job. Thus, while transfer of training is much better than 10%, there remains an obvious decay or relapse of training as early as six months following training. Gaps in the literature

Review of the literature has revealed that no sufficient studies have been conducted on training transfer in developing countries. Moreover, majority of the research work has been done in the field of job performance especially with reference to the U.S.A. and the U.K in which it is concluded that the training transfer is the important factor of employee’s attitudes towards the job that are expected to be affected by perceived refinement (Ozer and Gunluk, 2010).

Unlike previous studies that consider these factors collectively , the current study to establish the individual association between pre training factors and its impact on training transfer , in turn , to investigate the relationship between training transfer and job performance. Theories of Training Transfer

According to Holton (1996), one cause of failure to transfer is that training design rarely provides for transfer of learning. It is therefore important to understand the theories that achieve transfer. Expectancy Theory

The theory suggests that job performance (P) is the result of the interaction of two components, force (F) and ability (A), with ability representing the potential for performing some task. Vroom (1964) defined expectancy as a momentary belief concerning the likelihood that a particular act will precede a particular outcome. Vroom’s original presentation of expectancy theory placed it in the mainstream of contemporary motivation theory (Moorhead and Griffin, 1992).

According to this theory, trainees leave training programs with different levels of motivation to use their learning on the job (Yamnill and McLean, 2001). However, Holton (1996) argued that influences on transfer motivation fall into four categories, namely, intervention fulfillment, learning outcomes, job attitudes, and expected utility. Goal-Setting Theory

Goal-setting theory suggests two cognitive determinants of behavior: intentions and values. Intentions are viewed as the immediate precursors of human action. The second cognitive process manifests itself in the choice or acceptance of intentions and subsequent commitment to those goals (Locke, 1968). Equity Theory

Equity theory is based on the simple premise that people want to be treated fairly (Adams, 1963; cited by Yamnill and McLean, 2001). The theory defines equity as the belief that employees are being treated fairly in relation to others and inequity as the belief that employees are being treated unfairly in relation to others. Vroom (1964) recognized that individuals seek equity in their jobs; thus, job satisfaction reflects the extent to which rewards received match the rewards the employee believes should be received.


168

Contingency Theory of Organization Training is one of the most frequently utilized human resource development

interventions Scaduto et al. (2008). According to Burke and Baldwin (1999), there is much evidence suggesting that a considerable part of organizations’ investment in training does not result in optimal transfer. Consequently, the last three decades have witnessed a new trend in the study of organizational phenomena.

This trend is associated with the argument that the internal functioning of work organizations must be consistent with the demands of organizational tasks, technology or external environment among others. Cannel (2004) asserted that this approach led to the development of Contingency Theory of Organizations. Identical Elements Theory

Thorndike and Woodworth (1901) proposed the theory of identical elements. According to the theory, transfer is improved by increasing the degree of correspondence among the training setting stimuli, responses, and conditions and those related factors operative in the performance setting. Principles Theory

The principles theory suggests that training should focus on the general principles necessary to learn a task so that the learner can apply them to solve problems in the transfer environment (Goldstein, 1986; Yamnill and McLean (2001). Conclusion

The main objective of this study is to review the existing body of literature on training transfer. To achieve these objectives the literature were reviewed. In addition, some other important constructs were identified and their relationship verified to provide justification of including them in empirical study. Finally, the gaps was identified and a proposed model was described which will be recommended for future research to test it. References: Adams Al Subu, M. (2009, November).General aspects of higher education, and quality assurance system in Palestine.In Roundtable Meeting of QAA of the OIC Member Countries Armstrong, M. (2009).Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice.(11thed.). ISBN 978 0 7494 5242 1, United Kingdom. Burke, L. A. (2001). Training transfer: Ensuring training gets used on the job. In L. A. Burke (Ed.), High-impact training solutions: Top issues troubling trainers (pp. 89–116). Westport, CT: Quorum Books. Burke, L. A. & Baldwin, T. T. (1999).Workforce training transfer: a study of the effect of relapse prevention training and transfer.Human Resource Management, 38, 227–43. Gupta.S. (2012). Performance measurement: a comparative study of eva and traditional performance measurement techniques: a case study of steel and petrochemicals industry in India Holton, E. H. &Burnett, M. B. (1997). Qualitative research methods In R. A. Swanson, J and E. F. Holton (Eds.), Human resource development research handbook: Linking research and practice. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers Kalyani, L.D. (2006). An empirical investigation of the impact of organizational factors on the perceived job performance of shop floor employees of large scale garment industries in Sri Lanka. Sabaragamuwa University Journal, 6(1), 82 – 92 Kalyani, L.D. (2006). An empirical investigation of the impact of organizational factors on the perceived job performance of shop floor employees of large scale garment industries in Sri Lanka. Sabaragamuwa University Journal, 6(1), 82 – 92


169

Kola Olusanya, A. (2013).Embedding Environmental Sustainability Competencies in HumanCapital Training and Development.Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 4(4), 65- McLean, G. N., & McLean, L. (2001). If we can't define HRD in one country, how can we define it in an international context? HumanResource Development International, 4(3), 313 - Ozer, G., and Gunluk, M., (2010).The effects of discrimination perception and job satisfaction Vroom, V. H. (1964). Work and motivation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.


170

EUTHANASIA IN ISLAMIC VIEWS

Mehran Narimisa Department of Humanities, Shoushtar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shoushtar, Iran

Abstract We describe two of main sources have been used to find Islamic views towards euthanasia through in this paper as a result of an annual research: First, the Islamic primary source, Holy Koran, which is the most important and reliable source for finding Islamic perspectives, second, religious opinions and decrees (Fatwas) from great Muslim scholars, which are called Mofti Al-AazaminSunni tradition and Ayatollah Al-Ozma in Shiite tradition. These Fatwas are important because of the jurisprudential nature of such bioethical topics in Islamic communities.

Keywords: Euthanasia, mercy killing, assisted suicide, islamic Introduction According to our three main sources, we can classify our findings, to three parts: euthanasia in Holy Koran, in Fatwas or religious rulings of Great Muslim scholars, and in other text including codes, regulations and scientific articles. We can classify related verses to two parts: 1. Verses on the sacredness of life. We mention two related verses: a. “Do not take life, which Allah made sacred, other than in the course of justice”. “ If anyone kills a person -unless it is for murder or spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he killed the whole people”.Verses on that death is the exclusiveaction of God, here we also mention two verses: a“.When their time comes they cannot delay it for asingle hour nor can they bring it forward by a single hour”. b“ .And no person can ever die except by Allah's leave and at an appointed term”. The popular Egyptian scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, recently issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, equating euthanasia with murder, but allowing the withholding of treatment that is deemed useless. Euthanasia: An Islamic Ethical Perspective Islamic jurisprudence, based on a convincing interpretation of the holy Koran, does not recognize a person’s right to die voluntarily. The Islamic arguments against euthanasia can be summarized in two main reasons: 1-Life is sacred and euthanasia and suicide are not included among the reasons allowed for killing in Islam. And 2-Allah decides how long each of us will live and two verses support this reason. According to Islamic teachings, life is a divine trust and can’t be terminated by any form of active or passive voluntary intervention. All the Islamic scholars regard active euthanasia as forbidden (Hiram) and there is no difference between Sunni and Shiite schools. The moment of death, ajal, is under the control of Allah and the human has no say in this matter; the human cannot and should not attempt to hasten or delay the ajal. The prohibition on life applies equally well whether for self, suicide, or others, homicide or genocide. The concepts of autonomy, freedom and individual choice does not apply here for these two reasons: A. life does not belong to the human; and B. taking life will cause harm to the family and society in general. An individual's freedom of choice is constrained by the harm it causes to others. Justifying the stance of advocates of euthanasia on the basis of other factors such as economic concerns, consideration of resources that could otherwise be utilized by other patients and


171

death with dignity does not seem plausible because of crime nature of mercy killing in Islamic point of view. Of course, we have to exclude the situation in which the life support equipments are switched off from a brain-dead person, aimed to use them for saving the life of a live person. As a conclusion we can say that the Islamic position is that life belongs to Allah. It is He who gives and takes away life. No human can give or take it. Muslims are against euthanasia. They believe that all human life is sacred because it is given by Allah, and that Allah chooses how long each person will live. Human beings should not interfere in this. There are two instances, however, that could be interpreted as passive assistance in allowing a terminally ill patient to die and would be permissible by Islamic law: Administering analgesic agents that might shorten the patient’s life, with the purpose of relieving the physical pain or mental distress, and withdrawing a futile treatment in the basis of informed consent (of the immediate family members who act on the professional advice of the physicians in charge of the case) allowing death to take its natural course. If a patient is medically presumed dead through what is known as brain death, switching off the life support may be permissible, with due consultation and care, especially when it is clear that the life support machine becomes of no use for the already-dead patient or in the case of organ and tissue donation for saving another persons’ life which is a routine practice in Iran and some other Muslim countries. Regarding end-stage demented patients, they should be considered as completely human being and according to Islamic teachings; their life is scared and should not be taken. Islam and Euthanasia Physician not only has a duty to relieve the physical ailments of his patients, but also has to consider his mental and spiritual needs as well. The safeguarding of the human life, which is the greatest of god's creation, after Allah himself, is entrusted to the physicians. The physician-patient relationship in the Islamic countries mostly leans on the belief that a physician always does the best for his/her patient and always protects life. This belief has established the myth of the "little god" physician in these countries, and has added to the honor and respect and also amount of trust that people bestow on physicians. The role of a compassionate physician is to protect his patient from death at all costs. In fact the regulations governing the practice of the medical profession stipulate that the physician must practice his profession for the benefit of the individual and the community and respect the life, safety and dignity of his patients. New advances in medicine and biotechnology have increased the controversies regarding such ethical issues as euthanasia; physician assisted suicide, or mercy killing. The medical profession in the past dealt only with the issue of saving lives, but it has now been forced to deal with the of subjects such as mercy killing and ending the life in not only an ethical and professional way but step into the realms of philosophy and religion as well. Euthanasia which is defined as the deliberate killing of a person for his own benefit in order to relive him of enduring pain and suffering has raised many moral, ethical and religious questions. Such questions include: are we ever allowed to kill a terminally ill person who is in sever and debilitating pain? What do different religions have to say about such an act? And under what circumstances, if any, Islam in particular allows the performance of euthanasia? The word euthanasia derives from the Greek words “euthanatos” meaning good death or easy death. Euthanasia in fact means ending a patient's life according to certain principles and under certain circumstances, where medicine can not cure or provide a life of acceptable quality. The popular Egyptian scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, recently issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, equating euthanasia with murder, but allowing the withholding of treatment that is deemed useless.


172

Conclusion Euthanasia has to be legalized. So ends the surgeon’s contribution. A typical case of suicide. One isn’t able to bear a depressing and burdensome situation. Under intensive stress one sees the best way out of such a situation as one’s own death, accomplishing it by one’s own hand, without any external help (an unassisted death). Such a person did not ask for the termination of his life, no other person was involved. In was suicide, not euthanasia; not even assisted suicide. Besides cancer there can be many different reasons for which one might commit suicide. This story illustrates the kind of conceptual inaccuracy that can be in play. The forester was not suffering extreme pain, and he could possibly have been cured. If his story is an argument for euthanasia then any trying situation in life would qualify for euthanasia, leading euthanasia to be a first and not last resort. While most would argue that one is free to commit suicide any time he/she assesses his/her life as a burden and meaningless. But suicide has here nothing to do with euthanasia. Good Death Within Its Historical Context and as a Contemporary Challenge: A Philosophical Clarification of the Concept of “Euthanasia” proceed with care, but it need not to be decisive in determining the rightness or wrongness of the act. We need, therefore, to address the question of what it is about euthanasia that distinguishes it from, or places it in a separate category to, say, self-killing or murder.”Even a discussion which distinguishes between euthanasia and suicide is not necessarily free of conceptual inexactitudes by using terms such as “active euthanasia”, “passive euthanasia”, “direct euthanasia”, “indirect euthanasia”, “help in dying” as synonyms for euthanasia, “mercy killing” (German “Gnadentod”) as another synonym for euthanasia, and other terms such as “voluntary euthanasia”, “involuntary euthanasia”, active action causing death (action commissions), passive action (non-acting) causing death (action omissions,( “killing”, “letting die” (“allowing to die”), usage of “ordinary”/”extraordinary” means, “intending death”, “foreseeing death” (to foresee that an unintended death will occur). Not only is the term “euthanasia” connected with considerable semantic unclearness, but it is also used and abused in various cultural and historical contexts – so for instance, in Germany the term “euthanasia” (Euthanasie) is used to refer to the abuse of the Nazi regime during that period (eugenic euthanasia), while the term “Sterbehilfe”2 is used in current euthanasia debates. This use of unspecified terminology - with the term “good death” being used to subsume many very diverse situations and meanings – and including the use of single terms with diverse connotations (e.g. “assisted death” or “dignity”) is quite common in these debates. So semantic clarifications are therefore a necessary prerequisite for any ethical reflection on euthanasia to take place. However one of the obstacles for a meaningful discussion of euthanasia is its semantic deficiency. The non-addressed poly semantic that is present hinders understanding, reinforcing superficiality and creating misapprehensions. For instance if one makes use of the old-fashioned “active” and “passive” euthanasia terms, which can still be found in the literature, then the use of one and the same denotation, namely “euthanasia”, for ethically entirely different situations (killing by high doses of opiates and allowing to die when the terminally ill person is dying, without causing dysthanasia) is considerably problematic – not only from the semantic point of view. References: The Holy Koran Mondelli, F.; Levi, D.; Magistrelli, S.; Prato Previde, E. & Valsecchi, P. (2002). Why people ,brings back to the pound? A questionnaire study in Milan Italy. Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science. pp. 65. ISBN 0906562 392. Published by BSAS, York Morris, K.N.; Wolf, J.L. & Gies, D.L. (2011). Trends in intake and outcome data for anima Shelters in Colorado, 2000 to 2007. Journal of the American Veterinary Medica Association, Vol.238, No.3, (February, 2009) pp. 329-336. ISSN 0003-148


173

Nogueira, B.L.J.; Adams, C.L.; Bonnet, B.N.; Shaw, J.R. & Ribble, C.S. (2010). Use of the measure of patient-centered communication to analyze euthanasia discussion in companion animals practice. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. Vol,237, No.11, (December, 2010) pp. 1275-1287. ISSN 0003-1488 OIE (July, 2010). Stray dog population control. In: Terrestrial Animal Health Code 6.03.2011. Available from http//www.oie.int/index.php?id=169&L=0&htmfile=chapitre_1.7.7.htm


174

INDIA’S HOSTILITY TO INTERNATIONALIZE CRIMINAL JUSTICE- CALCULATIVE STRATEGY OR PREJUDICED

RELUCTANCE?

Garima Tiwari PhD Research Fellow, Scuola di Giurisprudenza, University of Camerino, Italy

Abstract On May 31, 2013 United Nations urged India to institute a commission of inquiry-

serving as a transnational justice mechanism, into extra-judicial killings in its North-eastern states. Urging India to repeal the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958, United Nations also asked India to ensure that the legislation regarding the use of force by the armed forces provides for the respect of the principles of proportionality and necessity. Various reports have shown that the State violence in Kashmir and North Eastern States of India was institutionalized through a culture of institutional impunity to the state forces which perpetuate the state of human rights violations. India has not acceded to the Rome Statute. It abstained in the vote adopting the statute in 1998, saying it objected to the broad definition adopted of crimes against humanity, the right given to the Security Council to refer cases, delay investigations and bind non-State Parties, and the use of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction not being explicitly outlawed. Even though, India has ratified the Geneva Conventions, it has decided to overlook Common Article 3. In light of the above, this paper highlights why the emerging power India, abstains from joining the Rome Statute and the possibility of India being brought under the scanner of International Criminal Court.

Keywords:Rome Statute, Kashmir, United Nations, Geneva Conventions, International Criminal Court Introduction

The Rome Statute for the establishment of an International Criminal Court (hereinafter “ICC”) was voted in, in July 1998, by 120 states, seven states voted against it and 21, including India, abstained. The Indian delegate at the Diplomatic Conference stated in his official statement that, “ We can understand the need for the International Criminal Court to step in when confronted by situations such as in former Yugoslavia or Rwanda, where national judicial structures had completely broken down. But the correct response to such exceptional situations is not that all nations must constantly prove the viability of their judicial structures or find these overridden by the ICC.”

Years after the establishment of International Criminal Court, India has no indication of becoming a State Party to the Statute. The paper would start by discussing why India continues to stay out of the Rome Statute. A special reference would be made to Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions and a look would be made into the conflict- situations in Kashmir and North Eastern States of India. After a a cause –effect analysis of these situations, a conclusion would be drawn as to the viability of India’s stand in the era of international law. I Indian position on the Rome Statute

The establishment of the ICC came out of the need for an independent, permanent criminal court to deal with heinous crimes of international concern. India’s decision to remain out of ICC is not something of an aberrant nature. India has been hostile to the idea of


175

internationalising criminal justice since long. Even when the International Military Tribunal for the Far East was established after the surrender of Japan at the end of Second World War, Dr. Radhabinod Pal, Judge from India gave a Dissenting Judgment .He refused to be bound by the charges brought against the defendants by the Prosecution. Consequently, Justice Pal declared the accused Japanese leaders innocent of all charges. Under the Charters of the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals, radical changes were made in the definitions of international laws. These tribunals made definitions of new offenses and held individuals in power responsible for perpetrating such offenses. In his judgment, he made a critical and detailed study of the status of international law in the first half of the twentieth century and argued that international law could not be changed by mere ipse dixit (dogmatic pronouncement) of the authors of the Charter in question. This dissenting judgment of Justice Radhabinod Pal at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East is of unique importance in the history of international law as a new interpretation of contemporary (i.e. history of the pre-second World War era) history of international events.

At the time of the drafting of the Rome Statute, some of the fundamental objections given by Indian delegates in their opposition to the Court related to the perceived role of the United Nations Security Council and its referral power. The Rome Conference even evaded a vote on India’s proposal to include the use of nuclear weapons as an ICC crime through a procedural ‘no action’ resolution. India eventually abstained in the vote on the Statutes, and has not taken any steps for its signature and ratification. The principal objections of India to the Rome Statute are that it:

Made the ICC subordinate to the UN Security Council, and thus in effect to its permanent members, and their political interference, by providing it the power to refer cases to the ICC and the power to block ICC proceedings. Provided the extraordinary power to the UN Security Council to bind non-States Parties to the ICC ; this violates a fundamental principle of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties that no state can be forced to accede to a treaty or be bound by the provisions of a treaty it has not accepted. Blurred the legal distinction between normative customary law and treaty obligations, particularly in respect of the definitions of crimes against humanity and their applicability to internal conflicts, placing countries in a position of being forced to acquiesce through the Rome Statutes to provisions of international treaties they have not yet accepted. Permitted no reservations or opt-out provisions to enable countries to safeguard their interests if placed in the above situation.

Inappropriately vested wide competence and powers to initiate investigations and trigger jurisdiction of the ICC in the hands of an individual prosecutor. Refused to designate of the use of nuclear weapons and terrorism among crimes within the purview of the ICC, as proposed by India. Common Article 3

India has ratified the 1949 Geneva Conventions and has even enacted Geneva Conventions Act 1960, but in practise, India has decided to overlook Common Article 3- in its special enactments, applicability and Supreme Court rulings. Moreover, India categorically and more extensively argues that at no point has the situation in India met the threshold required for the application of Common Article 3. Situation in Kashmir

There are reports on hundreds of mass graves in Kashmir. Torture, hostage-taking, and rape have all been prominent abuses in the Kashmir conflict. Both security forces and armed militants have used rape as a weapon: to punish, intimidate, coerce, humiliate and degrade, but no we do not meet the threshold of Common Article 3.There is widespread and frequent


176

fighting throughout Kashmir, recourse by the government to its regular armed forces, the organization of insurgents into armed forces with military commanders responsible for the actions of those forces and capable of adhering to laws of war obligations, the military nature of operations conducted on both sides, and the size of the insurgent forces and of the government’s military forces, which makes Common Article 3 is applicable to the conflict in Kashmir-but still Indian government argues that it does not meet the threshold for application of Common Article 3. This is because India has viewed the conflicts it has been beset with as domestic affairs, maybe, above the ‘law and order’ level but certainly below that of a non-international armed conflict.

The definition of non-international armed conflict not having been attempted in Common Article 3, the threshold of its applicability is pitched high by domestic states. Governments are understandably reluctant because of sovereignty considerations to concede belligerency opportunities for the non-state groups who they accuse of posing an armed challenge to the state. This reluctance is despite Common Article 3 stating that its application ‘shall not affect the legal status of the Parties to the conflict.’ Situation in North Eastern States

Another example is, Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 ( hereinafter ‘AFSPA’), passed when the Naga movement in the North eastern States for independence had just taken off. AFSPA has just six sections. The most damning are those in the fourth and sixth sections: the former enables security forces to “fire upon or otherwise use force, even to the causing of death” where laws are being violated. The latter says no criminal prosecution will lie against any person who has taken action under this act. While Common Article 3 prohibits killing of innocent civilians in non-international armed conflict, AFSPA under section 4(a) gives wide ranging powers to the armed forces to use force to the extent of causing death on mere suspicion. This has occasioned the application of AFSPA without resorting to the emergency provisions that would then invite its accountability externally. Till date, not a single army, or paramilitary officer or soldier has been prosecuted for murder, rape, destruction of property (including the burning of villages in the 1960s in Nagaland and Mizoram). There has been regrouping of villages in both places: villagers were forced to leave their homes at gunpoint, throw their belongings onto the back of a truck and move to a common site where they were herded together with strangers and formed new villages. It is a shameful and horrific history, which India knows little about and has cared even less for. There are extrajudicial executions, made emphatically in the north east region, which Government normally remains silent about. Justice Jeevan Reddy committee recommended the repeal of the AFSPA in 2005 but the findings and recommendations are buried as the government has neither taken a call on them nor made them public.

The situation of conflict that persists in Kashmir and the North-East explains the reasons for the state’s anxiety that this manner of violence could be referred to the ICC. Always arguing that the threshold has not reached, India continuously evades application of Common Article 3. Some help could have been taken from Additional Protocol II,where a lower threshold in found under Article 1(2) but India has not ratified the same. Even, the inclusion of ‘armed conflict not of an international character’ in defining ‘war crimes’ in Article 8 of the Statute for an ICC met with resistance from the Indian establishment.

India has even gone further and in December 2002, India signed a Bilateral Immunity Agreement with the United States of America, which has signed over a 100 such agreements to nullify the ICC’s impact as far as U.S. personnel are concerned. These agreements are also called “Article 98 agreement” because they refer to the provision of the Rome Statute that prohibits the ICC from prosecuting someone located within an ICC member state if doing so would cause the member state to violate the terms of other bilateral or multilateral treaties to which it may be a party.


177

On signing up the Rome Statute, there is a fear India would immediately come under ICC jurisdiction for violations under Common Article 3 and crimes against humanity during non-international armed conflict. This may be said to be a major reason for staying out of ICC since Articles 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute include such crimes, and no reservations are permitted, except that under Article 124 of the Rome Statute, States are permitted at the time of joining to opt out of war crimes jurisdiction for seven years.

India also looks for an opt-in provision whereby a state could accept the jurisdiction of the ICC by declaration (possibly for a specified period), and this might be limited to particular conduct or to conduct committed during a particular period of time. The lack of such a provision, and the inherent jurisdiction which replaced it, are perceived as representing a violation of the consent of states, and thus a threat to sovereignty. India’s resistance to accepting the inherent jurisdiction of the ICC is explained, in part, by anxieties about how investigation, prosecution and criminal proceedings in the Indian system may be judged by an international court. Further elements giving rise to India’s misgivings are the fear that the Court might be used with political motives, the power conferred on the Prosecutor to initiate investigations proprio motu and the role allotted to the Security Council. Conclusion

Having become Party to so many human rights conventions, which requires India to submit a variety of periodic reports for UN scrutiny on domestic actions , it is scarcely appropriate that India should assert impunity for the commission of the most heinous crimes imaginable in the course of combating domestic insurgencies. The Indian position, that India does not need the ICC because it is perfectly capable of dealing with mass crimes, is misleading. The ICC only steps in when the state does not act, or acts in ways that shield perpetrators. Indeed, in normal circumstances, India would have wished to be among the first to join such a revolutionary initiative to improve the international system. Maybe in the future meetings of the ICC Assembly of Parties could well consider, for example, extending the Kampala ‘opt-out’ provisions . Terrorism and the use of nuclear weapons could be taken up for consideration for inclusion in the ICC’s purview.

There are a few concerns about Indian leaders/military commanders being prosecuted by the ICC if India joined which are highly exaggerated. ICC jurisdiction over India under the UNSC referral process would be theoretically possible whether or not India joins the ICC, but highly unlikely in practice. India should immediately ensure substantive and effective participation in ICC deliberative and negotiating bodies which it is entitled to attend as an observer. Most of the objections and concerns highlighted in this paper, seem to have waned over the years. Moreover, heightened activities on the ICC in India in the past year have generated greater participation and interest from diverse constituencies including parliamentarians, academia, media and various civil society groups.

India has been subject to international dispute settlement bodies, such as the Dispute Settlement Body of the World Trade Organization and the International Court of Justice, amongst others. State sovereignty is not compromised merely because a nation-state agrees to subject itself to an international court that can exercise jurisdiction over its officials.Several legal provisions found in the Indian Constitution and the criminal laws of India are antecedents to many of the principles found in the Rome Statute – the presumption of innocence, principle of legality, proof of guilt beyond reasonable doubt, fair trial, legal aid and the right to remain silent, amongst others. Thus, India might have seriously prejudiced and misjudged the legal, political and social repercussions of opposing the Rome Statute, and risks further erosion of credibility if it altogether repudiates the Statute, and with it, its sizable practical advantages for protecting the dual interests of its nationals as individuals serving their country abroad, and of its national security.


178

Till India signs the Rome Statute it must be stated that the standards set by the Rome Statute could be of use in the region regardless of its poor record of ratification. For instance, the Rome standards have been used to promote law reform at the national level in India, as well as to provide redress to victims before national Courts in Sri Lanka. Thus, although the importance of the Court in fighting impunity worldwide is undisputable, the ICC also exists as a tool to strengthen national legal systems and provide redress to victims.

References: Ramanathan Usha. India and the ICC. 3 Journal of International Criminal Justice. 2005 Judgment of Justice Radhabino Pal. The Tokyo War Crimes Trial. 1946-48 Pritchard R. John, Sonia M. Zaide (eds.). The Dissenting Opinion of the Member for India R.B. al in The Tokyo War Crimes Trial. New York & London: Garland. Vol. I. p. 21.1981 Lahiri Dilip.Should India continue to stay out of ICC?.Observer India, (2010) Chatterji Angana P., Imroz Parvez, Navlakha Gautam, Zahir-Ud-Din, Desai Mihir, and Parvez Khurram. Buried Evidence: Unknown, Unmarked, and Mass Graves in Indian-administered Kashmir a preliminary report. International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian-administered Kashmir. 2009 India’s Secret Army in Kashmir, New Patterns of Abuse Emerge in the Conflict, Human Rights Watch. Vol. 8, No. 4 (C)May, 1996 Wilson Heather. International Law and the Use of Force by National Liberation Movements.Clarendon:Oxford. p.45-48.1988 Alley Roderic. Internal Conflict and the International Community: Wars without end?. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Company. p 120.2004. The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 Hazarika Sanjoy. An Abomination Called AFSPA. The Hindu. February 12.2013 Supra n. 4 Ramanathan Usha. India and the ICC. Frontline.Volume 18. Issue 07.March 31-April 13. 2001 Anita Abraham, What Are we Scared of? India: Boloji.2005 Banerjee Rishav.Rome Statute and India: An Analysis of India’s Attitude towards the International Criminal Court, Journal of East Asia & International Law.Nbr. 4-2.October 2011 The ICC can wait, Justice Cannot , Indian and South Asian Perspective on the International Criminal Court, International Bar Association. 2008.


179

EUTHANASIA: AN ISLAMIC ETHICAL PERSPECTIVE

Hamid Reza Nikookar Department of Humanities, Shoushtar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shoushtar, Iran

Seyed Hassan Jaafarian Sooteh PhD student, Department of Humanities, Tehran Markaz Branch, Islamic Azad University,

Tehran, Iran Abstract The popular Egyptian scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, recently issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, equating euthanasia with murder, but allowing the withholding of treatment that is deemed useless. Egypt Sharia courts and qadis are run and licensed by the Ministry of Justice. The personal status law that regulates matters such as marriage, divorce and child custody is governed by Sharia. In a family court, a woman’s testimony is worth half of a man’s testimony. One of the most important factors which determines society's attitude towards euthanasia is religion. As there are various sects and tariqas (manner, creeds) in Islam that cause significant differences, it is important to begin with an overall review of Islamic approach to euthanasia. But there are important differences between Islamic countries. The first group contains the countries which are governed by Islamic rules. These countries accept sheria (the code of law derived from the Quran and from the teachings and example of Prophet Mohammed) as their legal and administrative code, like Iran and Saudi Arabia. In Iran Shia Muslims and in Saudi Arabia Sunni Muslims as sects of Islam, rule the State. The second group consists of countries which have secularly governed states, but their laws are based on sheria, like Egypt. Today, many social institutions especially the mass media severely criticize physicians' attitudes in Turkey. Sometimes these criticisms turn out to be unfair attacks on medicine.

Keywords: Euthanasia, Shia, Koran Introduction This is the result of corruption in the myth of "little god" physician, and social disappointment about that. The associations of medical professionals try very hard to avoid any harm to medicine as a social institution while passing through this chaotic period. They try to re-establish confidentiality in physician-patient relationships on a stronger basis like the "informed consent doctrine". The foundation of the associations for specialized doctors of medicine is one of the main positive steps in realizing this purpose. One of the most important factors which determines society's attitude towards euthanasia is religion. 90% of the Turkish population are Muslims. As there are various sects and tariqas that cause significant differences, it is important to begin with an overall review of Islamic approach to euthanasia. There are important differences between Islamic countries. The first group contains the countries which are governed by Islamic rules. These countries accept sheria as their legal and administrative code, like Iran and Saudi Arabia. In Iran Shia Muslims and in Saudi Arabia Sunni Muslims as sects of Islam, rule the State. The second group consists of countries which have secularly governed states, but their laws are based on sheria, like Egypt and Algeria. Actually this is the largest Turkish Health Professional’s Attitudes Towards Euthanasia group.


180

Ayatollah Khamanei leader of Islamic Republic of Iran, as a Shiite Muslim scholar, also has issued a fatwa considering euthanasia “in all forms” forbidden(haram) Ayatollah Nuri Hamadani another ShiiteAyatollah also regards all forms of euthanasia as haram. Islamic Code of Medical Ethic: If it is scientifically certain that life cannot be restored, then it is futile to diligently keep the patient in a vegetative state by heroic means or to preserve the patient by deep freezing or other artificial methods. It is the process of life that the doctor aims to maintain and not the process of dying. In any case, the doctor shall not take a positive measure to terminate the patient's life."

“Human life is sacred, and it should never be wasted except in the cases specified by shari’a and the law. This is a question that lies completely outside the scope of the medical profession. A physician should not take an active part in terminating the life of a patient, even if it is at his or her guardian’s request, and even if the reason is severe deformity; a hopeless, incurable disease; or severe, unbearable pain that cannot be alleviated by the usual pain killers. The physician should urge his patient to endure and remind him of the reward of those who tolerate their suffering. This particularly applies to the following cases of what is known as mercy killing: A. the deliberate killing of a person who voluntarily asks for his life to be ended; B. physician-assisted suicide; and C. the deliberate killing of newly born infants with deformities that mayor may not threaten their lives. “The following cases are examples of what is not covered by the term “mercy killing:” The termination of a treatment when its continuation is confirmed, by the medical committee concerned, to be useless, and this includes artificial respirators, in as much as allowed by existing laws and regulations; declining to begin a treatment that is confirmed to be useless; and The intensified administration of a strong medication to stop a severe pain, although it is known that this medication might ultimately end the patient’s life”. Materials In the past few years, different European countries have drafted laws to govern euthanasia and these laws have been subject to many controversies and pro and con arguments. Islamic views, however, on this subject are clear and based on Quran verses. Ethical issues are among Islam's foremost concerns, and the essential core of Islamic teachings is the perfection of ethical conduct of a person. Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) has said "I have been appointed as prophet of God to complete and perfect moral ethics." Since almost all the medical ethical issues that become the subjects of controversies and arguments in some way or another deal with the human life, it is necessary to seek the religious and philosophical views regarding these issues. In Islam the preservation of life and the welfare of a human being are in second place after the preservation of religion. In Quran there are many verses regarding the issue of life and death. These verses teach the believers that life is a gift from God and therefore sacred. As was pointed out in Iran, Sheria, or Islamic codes, is the legal and administrative code. Islam's approach to subject of death and dying are quite clear. As God is the giver of life, he alone can take the life away. Euthanasia and assisted suicide are therefore illegal and subject to criminal investigation. At the present neither the lay community nor the medical profession has been exposed to the international debate on these issues, but Shiite Moslem scholars have had rulings about these matters. In this article, the view points of Shiite sect of Islam are discussed and compared with the modern medical ethics views regarding euthanasia. Shia (Shiite) is a branch of Islam with the vast majority of its followers living in the Middle Eastern countries of Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon. The distinctive institution of Shia Islam


181

is the Imamate - a much more exalted position than the Sunni Imam, who is primarily a prayer leader. In contrast to Sunni Muslims, who view the caliph only as a temporal leader and who lack a hereditary view of Muslim leadership, Shia Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad designated Ali to be his successor as Imam, exercising both spiritual and temporal leadership.

Shia as the official religion of Islamic Republic of Iran has had many Fatwas (religious opinions about whether an action is permissible or not) from its scholars regarding bioethical issues such as organ transplantation, abortion and genetic research, some of which have been implemented into law by the parliament of Iran in recent years. But the subject of Euthanasia is a clear matter that all the branches of Islam have had a unified opinion on. In an Islamic setting the issue of euthanasia is dismissed as religiously unlawful, therefore the specifications for taking a life are clear. From Islamic perspective sanctity of life is of supreme value, so killing a person out of mercy and in order to relieve him of pain and suffering is not only sinful, but a threat to the moral fabric of society. Islam states that to kill one's self or to get someone else to do it, is actually denying God, and of course to deny God's rights over our lives is to deny him altogether and this is the clear example of blasphemy. Islam teaches its followers that a person in any profession needs to be honest, show sound performance and be God conscious. This rule for the physicians is of course of more value because they touch on the human soul as well as his body. A physician is expected to maintain a typical, ethical performance at all costs. In this sense, controversial issues such as euthanasia have drawn the medical profession into the fields of ethics, philosophy, and religion. Life and death from Islamic perspective Islamic jurisprudence has four main sources, and all the Muslims rely on these sources to get answers for their questions. The primary source of Islamic law is the holy Quran. The second source is the Sunnah which is the teachings, sayings and the life style of the Prophet of Islam. The third source is Ijma', (meaning consensus or acceptance of a matter by a specified group of people) , and the last one is Aghl or reason. Based on these sources Islamic laws and regulations are established and governed. To answer the question of Euthanasia, we will only rely on the primary source which is the holy Quran. After creating Adam, the Almighty congratulates himself for creating the best of the creations: “so blessed be Allah, the best of the creators ". Allah gave this creation the best position: “certainly we created man in the best make ". But this great creation is also doomed, and in the end death awaits him: "then after that you will most surely die" and " every soul shall taste of death, and you shall only be paid fully your reward on the resurrection day; then whoever is removed far away from the fire and is made to enter the garden he indeed has attained the object; and the life of this world is nothing but a provision of vanities ". Islam emphasizes that man has not created himself; therefore he has no right over his body. Our lives are not our lives for us to do with as we see fit, this life was entrusted to us for care, nurture and safe keep: "surely Allah's is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth; he brings to life and causes to die; and there is not for you besides allah any guardian or helper” Imam Ali, the first Imam of the shia muslims, says that God is the owner and giver of life and his rights in giving and in taking are not to be violated: " He who gives life is he who is the owner of life and he who is taker of live"

In Islam the sanctuary of human life is a basic value as decreed by God. The gift of life is so valuable that the holy Quran states that saving of one life is the same as saving all the lives: " for this reason did we prescribe to the children of Israel that whoever slays a soul, unless it be for manslaughter or for mischief in the land, it is as though he slew all men; and whoever keeps it alive, it is as though he kept alive all men; and certainly our messengers came to them with clear arguments, but even after that many of them certainly act extravagantly in the land " Killing a person is a great sin. The holy Quran clearly points out this issue in the following verses: " and do not kill any one whom Allah has forbidden, except


182

for a just cause, and whoever is slain unjustly, we have indeed given to his heir authority, so let him not exceed the just limits in slaying; surely he is aided " In these and other verses related to the unforgivable act of killing, Allah states a social and educational fact. If a person kills one person, he would be able to kill others too without having any remorse. Therefore it can clearly be concluded that based on the Shiite doctrine, as well as other sects of Islam, suicide or euthanasia have no place. Attempting to kill oneself or others is a crime in Islam as well as a grave sin. The prophet of Islam (PBUH) has repeatedly warned those who attempt to kill themselves that they will be doomed in the eternity. This religion has listed and specified the indications for taking life (i.e., the exceptions to the general rule of sanctity of human life) and none of these include mercy killing or making allowance for it. Human life is to be respected unconditionally, irrespective of other circumstances. To kill a patient in order to relieve him of pain and suffering has no justification or provision in Islam. Furthermore, Islam has also put value on the suffering itself. In Quran, the Almighty states that Human beings were created to experience difficulties and hardship: "certainly we have created man to be in distress”

Another dimension to the question of pain and suffering is the issue of patience and endurance, which are highly valued in Islam: "And bear in patience whatever (ill) may befall you: this, behold, is something to set one's heart upon." Suffering and pain are seen as forgiveness for the past sins. A person who is patient and endures the hardships will be rewarded, and his reward will be the easier life in the other world: "with difficulty is surely ease “A believer knows that when he is afflicted with pain, if the means of alleviating this pain has fallen short, he could turn to spiritual dimension of his life and stand the pain patiently to be rewarded hereafter. A believer also knows that life does not end in this world and in fact after this life, eternity is awaiting him, which has eternal pain and suffering for the non-believers and happiness and joy for those who have endured the hardships, and safe guarded their belief in God: " But they who disbelieve, and deny Our revelations, such are rightful Peoples of the Fire. They will abide therein". “And those who believe and do good works: such are Right owners of the Garden. They will abide therein.” A believer knows that the hardships and joys of this world are incomparable to the hardships and joys of the other world. Although seeking medical treatments for an ill person is mandatory in Islam, illness and diseases in fact are viewed as tests for both patients and their families. Illness and specifically pain are not only a warning for the body that something is not right, but also a lesson in endurance for the people and that is to be thankful in times of health and patient in times of sickness. Islam does not look at the disease as just some physical ailments, but as tools for reaching spiritual values. In this regard both sickness and health can be tools for the faithful to get closer to the God. In an Islamic setting a patient must receive every possible psychological support and compassion from family and friends, including the patient's spiritual resources. So, futile or artificial means of keeping a dying patient alive is not also favored in Islam. The Islamic code of ethics states: "In his defense of Life, however, the Doctor is well advised to realize his limit and not transgress it. If it is scientifically certain that life cannot be restored, then it is futile to diligently keep on the vegetative state of the patient by heroic means of animation or preserve him by deep-freezing or other artificial methods. It is the process of life that the Doctor aims to maintain and not the process of dying. ". Islam emphasizes that the process of life must be maintained and not the process of dying. To make these points more clear, the following passages are questions that a student news agency has put forward to different Shiite Islamic scholars regarding Euthanasia. The question put forward is this: "euthanasia has been interpreted in Persian as mercy killing or killing a patient out of mercy in order to shorten his pain and suffering knowing that based on the current medical science there is no cure or treatment available for him. What is your ruling regarding


183

this type of killing? Can a parent or relative ask the doctor to commit this kind of act? If a physician, based on the patient's request, commits euthanasia, is he reliable?

In regard to this question, Ayatollah Khamanei the supreme leader of Islamic Republic of Iran, a distinguished Shiite Muslim scholar, as well as other well known and respected Shiite scholars including Ayatollah Safi Golpaigani, Noori Hamedani, Makarem Shirazi, Fazel Lankarani, and Bahjat have considered all types of euthanasia including fatal drug injection and physician assisted suicide as haram (forbidden) and a type of murder. Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi rules out that killing a human being is in no way acceptable even out of mercy or with the patient' consent or fear of treatment. The reason for this is first the holy verses of Quran and narratives of Imams, secondly the necessity of saving life. The philosophy behind this could be that granting this license could lead to abuses and killing people with the excuse of mercy and help. The people who want to commit suicide would also use this method. Also medical matters are not always certain and we've seen dying people that medicine was discouraged about their healing but miraculously have survived. These scholars have also ruled that the physicians who act in these cases are in the end culpable.

Ayatollah Safi Golpaigani, another shiite Moslem scholar, states that act of killing the person in this case, is the same as murder. Giving drugs, with the patients request, in order to accelerate his death is no license for killing, and the physician is responsible.

Ayatollah Sanei has ruled that euthanasia is strictly forbidden and the same as killing all the society and subject to retribution. He states that adherence to emotions in a case of murder and killing has dangerous consequences for the society, besides having a severe punishment in the hereafter world. Patient's consent, he states, is no license for killing, as this is in fact consent for committing sin and murder. Euthanasia, a Challenge in Western World Euthanasia has found many supporters as well as opponents in the western countries. Even though the Catholic Church as well as WMA have adamantly rejected it as unethical and immoral, the supporters were able to persuade the Holland government to legalize euthanasia under certain circumstances. The state of Organ in the United States also announced physician assisted suicide as a legal practice in 1997. In 1996 northern state of Australia also legalized voluntary euthanasia while a year later the federal government overturned this law. Also the legalization of euthanasia was put to action in 2002 in Belgium. It has been reported that in 1990, 9% of all deaths in the Netherlands were a result of physician assisted suicide or euthanasia. In these societies, physicians are considered as the most appropriate instruments of death since they have the medical knowledge and access to the appropriate drugs for ensuring a quick and painless death. Supporters of euthanasia believe that autonomy, individuality, and self-determination are the highest values, and that every person has the right to value the quality of his life and therefore choose when and how to die. A person may choose when his life is not worth living anymore and end it in any way he wishes. Human dignity, they contend, is a fundamental right of any human being, which means a dignified, planned and peaceful death far out weights a long life with a debilitating disease and pain and suffering. These supporters also contend that doctors assist in suicides or attempt euthanasia out of mercy for their patients, and these are compassionate acts not actual killing in a sense that we know it. These arguments could have been drawn from one of the four principles of the modern medical ethics which says that we must respect the patient's autonomy. In this principle, as World Medical Association (WMA), states, a patient has the right to decide on her own medical treatment. Some conclude that a person can decide on the manner and time of his death too.

While euthanasia has many supporters in the western countries, the number of opponents is also on the rise. Opponents besides, the religious arguments which clearly reject


184

euthanasia, have many reasons for considering euthanasia as an evil act which will be destructive to the values of any society. They say that euthanasia will desensitize people towards death and in the end result in devaluation of human life. Another argument against euthanasia is the belief that the duty of a doctor is to keep his patient alive at all costs. Physicians are generally introduced to people as angels of life, but by attempting euthanasia they become angels of death, and this in itself dishonors the profession which draws its dignity by being a profession which is committed to the task of preserving human life. Besides the religious views, some non-religious opponents consider euthanasia unethical because of the sanctity of human life. They believe that all human beings are to be valued and respected. The inherent value of life does not depend on anything else, and deliberate taking of human life to relieve it of pain and suffering is to disrespect the inherent worth of human beings. The most important reason against euthanasia is the fact that opponents believe drafting laws will not solve the ethical issues regarding euthanasia. They also contend that for many reasons it is impossible to draft laws and guidelines that will prevent the abuse of euthanasia. The possible abuses besides the possibility of wrong diagnosis include the fact that the prognosis could also be wrong and the patient may live longer than the doctors have anticipated or patients are forced to opt for euthanasia because of the high costs of medical treatments and the possible pressure from their families. Other reasons cited for opting for euthanasia have been depression, loneliness or confusion. Recent studies have reported that about 70% of actual decisions to end a life by euthanasia have been hasty and irrational, and contrary to general perceptions, depression and loneliness rather than pain and suffering seem to be the primary factors motivating patients' interest in euthanasia. Also patients can be strongly influenced by doctors as the sole source of their information about illness, prognosis and possible interventions, so despair can easily be communicated to both the patient and family by a doctor expressing pessimism about a prognosis. The Slippery slope

Many people are also afraid that voluntary euthanasia might lead to involuntary euthanasia and in effect "the slippery slope" argument states that if we change the law and accept voluntary euthanasia, we will not be able to keep it under control, and a seemingly harmless decision may start a trend that might result in something unthinkable to become acceptable in the future. This argument also states that high costs of medical treatments for the elderly or the terminally ill patients might drive doctors and care givers to start practicing euthanasia just to save money or free up hospital beds. In Iran there is a great difference between the level of medical technology and the physician-patient relationship regarding the contemporary norms. Paternalistic attitudes are common and this also suits the expectations of society. Physicians rarely inform their patients about their diagnosis and treatment, even when it is not a fatal or hopeless situation. Therefore patients put their faith in the hands of the doctors and trust them to make the best decisions for them. So if for any reason or under any circumstances euthanasia gains support, this could bring about major mistrust and misuse of medical treatment. Conclusion Euthanasia is an irreversible act, therefore it is necessary for the medical caregivers to attend to the possibility of depression and other psychological stressors before they act on the requests of the terminally ill patients to end their lives. A recent study in the USA indicated that although a significant majority of terminally ill patients supported euthanasia, only a small minority of them actually considered it for themselves and a very small minority of them actually took concrete action to request euthanasia and discussed it with their physicians. Another study indicated that the higher the costs of medical treatments get, the more patients become desperate and ask for euthanasia. Based on the divine teachings of Islam, Christianity


185

and Judaism, euthanasia is condemned. In all these religions there is a value seen in suffering. Pope John Paul II states that: "it is suffering more than anything else, which clears the way for the grace which transforms human souls". Christianity and Islam also believe that relieving someone's suffering is good, as long as it does not intentionally cause death. Eastern religions look at the issue of life and death differently. They believe that a person lives many lives, and the quality of each life is set by the way he/she has lived his previous life. Generally, doctors within the Shiite societies are very conservative and strictly opposed to euthanasia and assisted suicide. This being the case, there is a strong need to identify and treat depression in terminally ill patients and to provide social support to patients and their families through comprehensive programs run by multidisciplinary teams. References: The Holy Quran Hojati, M. (2000). Law Analysis of Euthanasia, Justice Mag., No. 30. Ghamami, S. M. M. (2005 ). Calm Death, Govah season letter, No.s 2 & 3, 79 p. Taheri, H. (2006). Law papers set, Sadr Qom press, 1st edition. Moein, M. (2007). Farsi Dictionari, Zarrin third edition. Dehkhoda. (2007). Farsi Dictionari, Zarrin fifth edition. Ganzini L, Goy ER, Dobscha SK. (2009). Oregonians’ reasons for re10. questing physician aid in dying. Archives of Internal Medicine, 169:489–492. Dickenson DL. Can medical criteria settle priority-setting de11. bates? The need for ethical analysis. Health Care Analysis, 1999, 7:131–137. Illingworth P, Bursztajn H. (2000). Death with dignity or life with 12. health care rationing. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 6:314–321. Kuhse H, Singer P, Baume P,Clark M, Richard M. (1997). End-of-life decisions in Australian medical practice. Medical Journal of Australia;166:191-6. 13 . Kissane DW, Street A, Nitschke P. Seven deaths in Darwin: case studies under the Rights

of the Terminally Ill Act, Northern Territory, Australia. Lancet 1998;352:1097-102. 14 . Emanuel EJ, Fairclough DL, (2000;). Emanuel LL. „Attitudes and desires related to

euthanasia and physician assisted suicide among terminally ill patients and their care givers" JAMA. 284(19):2460-2468. http://www.emro.who.int/rpc/Bioethics.htm www.eslamonline.com


186

HUMAN VALUES, HEALTH CONCEPTS, AND TREATMENT APPROACHES ARE CULTURE-DEPENDENT: WHY

WESTERN PSYCHOLOGY DOES NOT SUFFICE

Walter Renner, PhD Professor

Pan-European University, Faculty of Psychology, Bratislava, Slovak Republic Ingrid Salem, MA, PhD

Krankenhaus Waiern, Psychosomatische Abteilung, Feldkirchen, Austria

Abstract

We challenged the assumption that traditional Western psychology would possess worldwide validity. (1) We compared human values in European individualist vs. Arab and South African collectivist societies. E.g., whereas European religiosity (N = 456 Austrians) was regarded a private matter, in Arab culture (N = 737, American University, Cairo) being religious implied endorsing national Arabism and in South African, indigenous culture, for N = 400 respondents at Sovenga religiousness were intertwined with pro-social attitudes. Recently we confirmed theoretical predictions regarding differences in N = 336 Indian vs. N = 163 Central European respondents' style of moral judgment. – (2) In line with expectations, Diagnostic Criteria as set forth by DSM-IV-TR only insufficiently reflected the post-traumatic symptomatology in N = 150 refugees from Chechnya, Afghanistan, and West Africa and we found distinct differences with respect to symptomatology between these cultural groups. – (3) We tested a cultural self-help group (SHG) program for Chechen refugees in a randomized, controlled trial (N = 94). SHGs facilitated by Chechnyan laypeople were equally effective as Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and highly superior to the wait-list condition (Cohen's d = 0.93). – (4) We could not, however, replicate these findings with N = 66 female Turkish migrants with recurrent depression: neither SHG nor CBT reduced clinical symptoms. Western psychological paradigms must be replaced by culturally specific ones, but SHG only in some cases can replace treatment. Alternatively, culturally specific treatment approaches conducted by a clinical psychologist with a migration background is being studied in an Austrian psychosomatic clinic.

Keywords: Culture, Human Values, Post-traumatic symptoms, self-help Introduction Individualist vs. and Collectivist Values and Views of Humanity

Traditional Western psychology took for granted that universal principles would sufficiently explain human experience and behavior worldwide. Therefore, cultural differences and peculiarities were neglected by the academic mainstream. Although DSM-5 has started to take cultural differences into consideration, clinical psychology still orients by diagnostic criteria and treatment concepts developed in North America or Central Europe for White middleclass patients.

In order to investigate health related cultural differences, several years ago we have started from the theoretical concept of individualist vs. collectivist cultures and their respective value orientations. In the late 19th century, the German philosopher Tönnies (1887/2001) differentiated Society from Community , with Society having developed after the industrial revolution and emphasizing abstract forms of living together, whereas Community focused on living together in a tangible way as a member of an extended family or a small village. Similarly, Hofstede (1984) and Triandis (1995) referred to Individualism, resembling


187

Toennies' Society and to Collectivism, standing for Community. Although today there is a worldwide trend from Collectivism to Individualism, the Arab World, Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and South America still orient by collectivist rather than by individualist values, putting more emphasis on collective well-being that on the individual's personal interests. Markus and Kitayama (1991) referred to the same phenomenon, by differentiating independent (individualist) from interdependent (collectivist) cultures. Similarly, Shweder's (2000) cultural psychology introduced three ethics, with the Ethic of Autonomy resembling individualist and the Ethics of Community and Divinity resembling collectivist values.

Along these lines, the first author examined human values in various cultures on the basis of the lexical approach. This method starts with extracting relevant concepts from the lexicon of the respective language and continues with asking several hundred participants to rate these concepts with respect to their perceived personal relevance. In central Europe, on the basis of a sample of N = 456 respondents, by Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Renner (2003) found five value dimensions representing the individualist Austrian, Central European culture, namely: (1) Personal and interpersonal harmony (e.g., fairness, community), (2) Intellectualism (e.g., social criticism, reflection), (3) Conservatism (e.g., patriotism, tradition), (4) Religiosity (e.g., fear of God, faith), and (5) Materialism (e.g., wealth, career). In contrast, Renner and Myambo (2007), on the basis of an Arabic dictionary, established a taxonomy of Arab values and submitted it to N = 737 students of the American University in Cairo (AUC). In this case, EFA yielded six dimensions, namely (1) Nobility and Compassion (e.g., greeting, hospitality), (2) Discipline (e.g., order, patience), (3) Advancement (e.g., discovery, exploration), (4) Self-Actualization (e.g., freedom of choice, delight), (5) Belief and Commitment (e.g., veil, national defense), and (6) Counter-Culture (e.g., hostility, anarchy). Renner, Peltzer and Phaswana (2003) examined the personal values of mostly Christian Black South Africans by a lexical analysis of the language Northern Sotho, spoken in the Northern Province of the Republic of South Africa. EFA of the ratings by N = 400 respondents yielded five dimensions: (1) Religiosity and Support (e.g., prayer, mutual aid), (2) Solidarity (e.g., attachment, hospitality), (3) Conformity and Benevolence (e.g., honor, respect), (4) Leadership and Achievement (e.g., competition, wealth), and (5) Human Enhancement (e.g., self-control, responsibility). The value dimensions from Austrian and Arab and South African culture reflect individualism and collectivism and the three ethics of cultural psychology. Whereas Austrian values are concerned with autonomy and personal success, Arab and South African values clearly put far more emphasis on mutual support and divinity. Moreover, the three cultures have quite different concepts of religiosity. Whereas for individualist Austrians, religiosity is largely considered a "private" matter, for Arab respondents religiosity is intertwined with Arab patriotism and for South Africans, religiosity necessarily implies charity and altruism.

A recent comparison of Indian and Austrian students by Renner (2013) confirmed the expectation of Moral Foundations Theory (Haidt & Joseph, 2004; Haidt & Kesebir, 2010): A sample of N = 336 (226 female; mean age = 21.9, s = 3.1 years) collectivist participants from Southern India not only endorsed (1) values related to avoiding Harm to others and (2) ensuring Fairness, but equally endorsed (3) Ingroup Loyalty, (4) Authority, and (5) religious Purity. In contrast, N = 163 Central European respondents, mostly Germans and Austrians (131 female; mean age = 25.7, s = 8.4 years), only endorsed moral foundations (1) and (2), putting little or no emphasis on (3), (4) and (5). These findings are summarized in Figure 1 by the ratings on a scale ranging from 0 (not relevant at all) to 6 (highly relevant). Additional analyses revealed that the degree of westernization or globalization as measured by a questionnaire had a marked effect on the Indian respondents' style of decision making when they were confronted with moral scenarios. As shown in Figure 2, a higher degree of globalization predicted a utilitarian style of decision making, as opposed to a deontological


188

one. In other words, the more globalized respondents were more ready to give up their moral convictions in favor of an alleged personal benefit (e.g., betraying a personal friend in order

Figure 1: Results from the "Relevance" section of the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ) (Graham, Haidt

& Nosek, 2009) for Indian and Austrian respondents as reported by Renner (2013). ** Differences are significant at the 1% level.

to reach one's goals more effectively). It can be seen from Figure 2 that less globalized participants rejected utilitarian decisions, as indicated by a negative score on the "Mean Utilitarian Decisions" scale, whereas the more globalized ones tended to take a more neutral, indifferent stance. Overall, our expectation of culturally specific ethics, value orientations, and views of humanity was confirmed.

Figure 2: Globalization and utilitarian style of decision making in Indian respondents (means and standard

deviations from ten moral scenarios: +2 = extremely utilitarian, -2 = least utilitarian style of decision making) A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Clinical Symptoms in Asylum Seekers from Chechnya, Afghanistan, and West Africa

Previous research indicated that people from collectivist cultures believe in a unity of body and mind, as opposed to a typically Western dualistic point of view (de Jong, 2002; Kirmayer, 1996; Peltzer, 1995), frequently expressing mental strain by somatic symptoms (Mumford et al., 1991). Moreover, social support by their extended families is of extreme importance not only for the psychological but also for the physical well-being of people from collectivist societies. Along these lines, Eisenbruch (1991) has coined the term of "cultural bereavement" when referring to the psychological condition of refugees with a collectivist background.

In this part of our research we examined the question whether clinical symptoms, especially post-traumatic ones, would differ in patients from various parts of the world. We


189

started from the assumption that the typically "Western" Diagnostic Criteria of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as put forward by the then DSM-IV-TR would only partly apply to traumatized asylum seekers and refugees from Chechnya, Afghanistan and West Africa and that symptomatology would differ between these three ethnic groups as well. A total of N = 150 asylum seekers and refugees participated. Fifty participants had come from Chechnya (N = 25 or 50% women; mean age 32.4 years, s = 10.7), N = 50 were from Afghanistan (N = 11 or 22% women; mean age 32.5 years, s = 9.0), and N = 50 participants had come from West Africa (N = 4 or 8% women; mean age 27.5 years, s = 7.1). As a criterion against which we assessed the diagnostic validity of "Western" diagnostic methods, we used clinical interviews in which we assessed possible symptoms of traumatization as well traumatic events that may have triggered symptomatology. Diagnoses of PTSD were established by the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS-1) (Blake et al., 2000). In addition, a number of psychometric scales, measuring different facets of post-traumatic symptomatology were used: (1) the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25; Mollica, Wyshak, de Marneffe, Khuon, & Lavelle, 1987), (2) the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ; Mollica et al., 1992), (3) the Impact of Event Scale (IES-R; Weiss & Marmar, 1997), (4) the Bradford Somatic Inventory (BSI; Mumford et al., 1991), and (5) the Social Adaptation Self-Evaluation Scale (SASS; Bosc, Dubini, & Polin, 1997). In a first step, the cross-cultural validity of PTSD diagnoses as assessed by the CAPS was examined. The results are summarized in Table 1. It can be seen that PTSD diagnoses yielded high numbers of False Negative cases when validated against the clinical interviews. For example, out of 31 Chechens, diagnosed positively for post-traumatic symptoms in the clinical interviews, only 15 were recognized correctly by PTSD diagnoses. Similar findings were obtained for the remaining two ethnic groups.

PTSD positive PTSD negative Total Chechnya (N = 50) Interview positive 15 16 31 Interview negative 0 19 19 Afghanistan (N = 50) Interview positive 5 17 22 Interview negative 1 27 28 West Africa (N = 50) Interview positive 22 12 24 Interview negative 5 21 26

Table 1: Cross-cultural validity of the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS-1) (Blake et al., 2000), determined by diagnostic interviews as a criterion (False Positives and False Negatives in bold print)

As a next step, Renner, Salem and Ottomeyer (2007) examined whether the questionnaire scores would differentiate between the three cultures. Whereas at the level of total scores, little differences were found, discriminant analyses at the item level classified 92% of participants correctly by two discriminant functions:

Function 1 discriminated Afghans and West Africans (feeling "tense" and "on guard", accompanied by somatic symptoms) from Chechens (complaining from difficulties concentrating and feeling "detached") and Function 2 discriminated West Africans (avoidant behavior, feelings of guilt and lack of affect) from Afghans (feeling tired, restless, or weak). Culturally sensitive interventions as compared to traditional psychotherapy

In this third step of the research we tried to apply our findings to supporting traumatized refugees and asylum seekers in Austria as well as working migrants suffering from recurrent depression. Our findings were in line with the propositions for example by de


190

Jong (2004), who argued in favor of "culturally congruent" (p. 171) interventions, which should take into account different backgrounds (Eisenbruch, 1992; Kirmayer, 1989), ethnic identities and practices (Jablensky et al., 1994) as well as culturally specific symptoms (Chakraborty, 1991).

Starting from the assumption that culturally competent compatriots would not be available as experts from clinical psychology and psychiatry we resorted to self-help groups as an alternative. From the literature, there was ample evidence that self-help would be a powerful tool enabling participants to cope with post-traumatic symptomology effectively. This has been found for example by early studies conducted by the Swiss psychologist Perren-Klingler (2001) with victims of the Yugoslav war and has been later been confirmed for example by Eisenbruch, de Jong and van de Put (2004) on a global scale on behalf of the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO). Still, systematic randomized controlled longitudinal studies with regard to the effects of self-help on traumatized refugees were missing. Chechen Refugees and Asylum Seekers

We therefore offered in a randomized controlled study 15 sessions of weekly guided self-help groups (90 minutes each in Chechen), 15 sessions of weekly group based Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) (90 minutes each, interpreter-assisted in German),

a wait-list control condition (with participants receiving the self-help program after waiting time had been completed), and three sessions of individual Eye Movement and Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) (45 minutes each, interpreter-assisted in German),) to a total of N = 94 Chechen asylum seekers and refugees in Austria (44 or 46.1% of them female) with a mean age of 34.83 years (s = 9.78).

Self-help groups were facilitated by same-sex laypeople from Chechnya in their mother tongue. They had been trained for their task in a series of workshops, teaching them basic skills of group dynamics as well as some essential knowledge of psychological trauma and post-traumatic reactions. They received neither a manual nor other written instructions on how to facilitate the groups, but were encouraged to arrange the group sessions according to their personal ideas and conceptions. Behavior therapy groups were conducted by a licensed supervisor of behavior therapy and EMDR was applied by a clinical psychologist and EMDR practitioner.

The following questionnaires were used in order to evaluate the outcome of the interventions at pre-, post-, three-months, and six-months follow-up occasions:

The Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ, Mollica et al., 1992) (items 1 to 16, which had been found to differentiate well between traumatized and healthy participants from Chechnya in our previous study),

The Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL-25, Mollica et al., 1987), in order to assess additional symptomatology (anxiety, depression, somatoform symptoms), apart from post-traumatic stress,

Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PGI, Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996), in order to assess the participants' potential of activating personal resources as a consequence of traumatic experiences.

Both, guided self-help groups (SHG) and CBT groups proved effective only for participants with considerable symptoms of traumatization, of whom a total of N = 32 were present both, immediately before (T1) and after (T2) the interventions (SHG; N = 9; CBT: N = 10; EMDR = 6; WL = 7, men and women taken together). Considerable traumatization was defined by an HTQ score > 1.75. For these participants, according to the results of Repeated Measures ANOVA, SHG had significantly better effects than wait-list (WL) (p = .002). Effect


191

sizes for SHG, as compared to WL were d = 0.94. Similarly, for the HSCL-25, SHG was significantly superior to WL (p = .016) and in this case, the effect size for SHG as compared to WL was d = 0.93. On both measures, SHG proved to be equally effective as CBT, whereas EMDR showed no significant effect. Figure 3 exemplifies these results for the improvements as measured on the HTQ before and after the interventions. For none of the groups there were significant effects on the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PGI).

Figure 3: Change of post-traumatic symptoms on the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) in a total of N = 53

participants with considerable symptoms of traumatization (HTQ > 1.75)

From Figure 3 it is evident that SHG were equally effective as CBT, whereas WL and EMDR were of no avail. At the two follow-up occasions, three and six months after ending the interventions, there was no significant change of symptomatology, i.e., the effects had proven to remain stable over time (for details see Renner, Bänninger-Huber & Peltzer, 2011). In line with the literature on the effects of culturally effective lay interventions we found that they were equally effective as professional psychotherapy. In other words, the "unspecific" effects of ethnic social support has effectively compensated for the fact that the self-help groups' facilitators were lay people without any psychotherapeutic qualification. Turkish Working Migrants

Encouraged by the positive effects on Chechen refugees and asylum seekers, we tested the self-help approach with female working migrants from Turkey with recurrent depression. Recurrent depression is known to be a common phenomenon especially among women of Turkish descent in Austria (e.g., Cicek, 1990). It is also well documented that these diseases are commonly difficult to treat and in many cases resistant to conventional therapy. In the sense of Berry (2007), Turkish migrants in Austria use to resort to a separation rather than an integration strategy in the course of their acculturation, i.e, they rather stay among their ethnic group during their leisure time, only have poor knowledge of German, and hardly entertain social contacts with the Austrian population (Sahin, 2006). We therefore expected that ethnic peer support would be equally beneficial for Turkish migrant women as formally for Chechen refugees and asylum seekers. The sample originally consisted of N = 66 women with a Turkish migration background, with N = 62 of them stemming from the first and N = 4 from the second generation of migration. The participants' mean age was 42.7 years (s = 8.7 years). Out of this sample, N = 21 were randomized to two guided SHGs in Turkish, N = 23 to two CBT groups conducted by an Austrian female behavior therapist assisted by an interpreter and N = 22 were randomized the the WL control condition. Both, SHG and CBT group sessions took place in weekly intervals over a 15 weeks period, each session lasting for 90 minutes.


192

The following questionnaire measures (all of them in their Turkish translations) were used in order to assess symptom change: The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D, Radloff, 1977), The Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL-25, Mollica et al., 1987), The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PGI, Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996), The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI, Derogatis, 1993). The List of Complaints (Beschwerdeliste, Schwab & Tercanli, 1987), The Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ, Mollica et al., 1992) and The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ, Özer, 2004).

In this case, neither the guided self-help intervention nor group based cognitive behavior therapy yielded significant reduction of symptoms as compared to WL on any of the scales just mentioned (for details, see Renner & Berry, 2011). In spite of the negative result on the symptom level, participants reported subjective gain with respect to their well-being as assessed by qualitative interviews (Siller & Renner, submitted). The negative findings are in line with similar results for example by Lampe and Barbist (2010), who had found negative results with group psychotherapy with Turkish migrants. From the qualitative interviews, it became clear that many participants did not accept the "self-help" nature of the intervention and rather had expected professional help. Moreover, the group leaders, who were young women without children of their own, were not recognized as distinguished "experts" especially by the older, more conservative group members. As reported by Renner and Berry (2011) in detail, younger women with a comparatively longer stay in Austria (who can be expected to have less conservative attitudes) had benefitted more from the intervention than older women or participants with a short period of stay in Austria. Conclusion

First, our finding of value orientations differing between cultures has challenged the traditional view of "Western" psychology claiming universal validity over many decades. Moreover, the main assumption of this research program of health related concepts being intertwined with the cultural specificities of individualist and collectivist societies has been confirmed. In the first place, our results have shown that clinical symptomatology differs between cultures and that these cultural differences must be dealt with in the course of therapy. The results have also shown that ethnic support may have a substantial impact on the reduction of clinical symptoms especially in refugees and asylum seekers suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Our results obtained from female Turkish migrant women, however, suggest that for this group of patients, lay-help does not suffice for them. In contrast, clinical psychologists and/or psychiatrists who share the patients' ethnic background should be engaged in order to provide interventions which take cultural specificities into account. In this respect, a pilot study at an Austrian clinic has recently been conducted and we have the honor to report its results in our second contribution to this conference (Salem, Gaugeler & Renner, submitted). Overall, our results suggest that a solely "Western" approach to psychology is overly simplistic and cultural aspects of diagnostic assessments and therapy should receive more attention.

Limitations of this research program pertain to the fact that to date we have ascertained that cultural differences must be dealt with in clinical psychology, but we are not yet able to determine in detail, which cultural differences exist to what extent, and, more importantly from a humanitarian point of view, which ethnic groups need exactly which type of interventions. These limitations set the goals for future research. References: Berry, J. W. (2007). Acculturation and identity. In D. Bhugra & K. Bhui (Eds.), Textbook of cultural psychiatry (pp. 169-178). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


193

Blake, D., Weathers, F., Nagy, L., Kaloupek, D., Klauminzer, G., Charney, D., Keane, T., & Buckley, T. C. (2000). Instruction manual. Clinician administered PTSD Scale (CAPS). Boston: National Center for PTSD. Bosc, M., Dubini, A., & Polin, V. (1997). Development and validation of a social functioning scale, the Social Adaptation Self-evaluation Scale. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 7, Suppl. 1, S57-S70. Chakraborty, A. (1991). Culture, colonialism, and psychiatry (1991). The Lancet, 337, 1204-1207. Cicek, H. (1990). Psychosexuelle Probleme von ausländischen Patienten [Psychosexual problems encountered by patients from abroad]. Psychomed, 2, 244-246. de Jong, J. T. V. M. (2002). Public mental health, traumatic stress and human rights violations in low-income countries. In J. de Jong (ed.), Trauma, war and violence. Public mental health in socio-cultural context (pp. 1-91). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. de Jong, J. T. V. M. (2004). Public mental health and culture: Disasters as a challenge to western mental health care models, the self, and PTSD. In J. P. Wilson & B. Drozdek (Eds.), Broken Spirits (pp. 159-178). New York: Brunner-Routledge. Derogatis, L. R. (1993). The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI): Administration, scoring, and procedures manual (3rd ed.). Minneapolis, MN: Pearson. Eisenbruch, M. (1991). From post-traumatic stress disorder to cultural bereavement. Diagnosis of Southeast Asian refugees. Social Science and Medicine, 33, 673 - 680. Eisenbruch, M. (1992). Toward a culturally sensitive DSM: Cultural bereavement in Cambodian refugees and the traditional healer as taxonomist. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 180, 8-10. Eisenbruch, M., de Jong, J. T. V. M. & van de Put, W. (2004). Bringing order out of chaos: A culturally competent approach to managing the problems of refugees and victims of organized violence. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 17, 123-131. Graham, J., Haidt, J., & Nosek, B. A. (2009). Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 1029-1046. Haidt, J. & Joseph, D. (2004, Fall). Intuitive ethics: How innately prepared intuitions generate culturally variable virtues. Daedalus, 55-66. http://faculty.virginia.edu/haidtlab/articles/ haidt.joseph.2004.intuitive-ethics.pub035.pdf Haidt, J. & Kesebir, S. (2010). Morality. In S. T. Fiske, D. T. Gilbert, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of Social Psychology (5th Ed.) (pp.797-832). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Hofstede, G. (1984). Culture's consequences. International differences in work related values. (2nd ed.). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Jablensky, A., Marsella, A. J., Ekblad, S., Jansson, B., Levi, L. & Bornemann, T. (1994). Refugee mental health and well-beging: Conclusions and recommendations. In A. J. Marsella, T. Bornemann, S. Ekblad & J. Orley (eds.), Amidst peril and pain. The mental health and well-being of the world's refugees (pp. 327-339). Washington, DC: APA. Kirmayer, L. J. (1989). Cultural variations in the response to psychiatric disorders and emotional distress. Social Science and Medicine, 29, 327-339. Kirmayer, L. J. (1996). Confusion of the senses: Implications of ethnocultural variations in somatoform and dissociative disorders for PTSD. In A. J. Marsella, M. J. Friedman, E. T. Gerrity & R. M. Scurfield (eds.), Ethnocultural aspects of posttraumatic stress disorder. Issues, research, and clinical applications (pp. 131-163). Washington, D.C.: APA. Lampe, A., & Barbist, M. T. (2010). An intercultural group in support of Turkish migrant women. In W. Renner (Ed.), Female Turkish migrants with recurrent depression. A research report on the effectiveness of group interventions: Theoretical assumptions, results, and recommendations (pp. 106-111). Innsbruck, Austria: Studia. Markus, H. R. & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self. Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224-253.


194

Mollica, R. F., Caspi-Yavin, Y., Bollini, P., Truong, T., Tor, S., & Lavelle, J. (1992). The Harvard Trauma Questionnaire: Validating a cross-cultural instrument for measuring torture, trauma, and posttraumatic stress disorder in Indochinese refugees. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 180, 111-116. Mollica, R. F., Wyshak, G., de Marneffe, D., Khuon, F., & Lavelle, J. (1987). Indochinese versions of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25: A screening instrument for the psychiatric care of refugees. American Journal of Psychiatry, 144, 497-500. Mumford, D. B., Bavington, J. T., Bhatnagar, K. S., Hussain, Y., Mirza, S., & Naraghi, M. (1991). The Bradford Somatic Inventory. A multi-ethnic inventory of somatic symptoms reported by anxious and depressed patients in Britain and the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. British Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 379-386. Özer, G. U. (2004). Adaptation of revised Brief PHQ (Brief PHQ-r) for diagnosis of depression, panic disorder and somatoform disorder in primary health care settings. International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 8, 11-18. Peltzer, K. (1995). Ethnokulturelle Konzepte von Trauma und deren Behandlung [Ethnocultural concepts of trauma and its treatment]. In: K. Peltzer, A. Aycha & E. Bittenbinder, (eds.) Gewalt und Trauma: Psychopathologie und Behandlung von Flüchtlingen und Opfern organisierter Gewalt [Organized violence and trauma: psychopathology and treatment]. Frankfurt/M.: IKO. Perren-Klingler, G. (2001). Trauma: Wissen, Können, Selbstaufbau. Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe bei Flüchtlingen [Trauma: knowledge, abilities, self-empowerment. Being taught how to help oneself]. In M. Verwey (ed.), Trauma und Ressourcen [Trauma and resources], (pp. 129-140). Berlin: Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung. Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D Scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385-401.Renner, W. (2003). Human values: a lexical perspective. Personality and Individual Differences, 34, 127-141. Renner, W. (2003). Human values: a lexical perspective. Personality and Individual Differences, 34, 127-141. Renner, W. (2013). Youth development and its challenges. Invited lecture, 3rd National conference on school psychology at NIEPMD, Chennai (India) on 22 – 24 November, 2013. Renner, W., Bänninger-Huber, E. & Peltzer, K. (2011). Culture-Sensitive and Resource Oriented Peer (CROP)-Groups as a Community Based Intervention for Trauma Survivors: A Randomized Controlled Study with Chechnyans. Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies (1), published online at http://www.massey.ac.nz/~trauma/issues/previous.shtml. Renner, W. & Berry, J. W. (2011). Group Interventions were not Effective for Female Turkish Migrants with Recurrent Depression – Recommendations from a Randomized Controlled Study. Social Behavior and Personality, 39(9), 1217-1234. Renner, W. & Myambo, K. (2007). The Arabic Language and contemporary Egyptian national values: A lexical analysis. Psychologia - An International Journal of Psychology in the Orient, 50 (1), 26—38. Renner, W., Peltzer, K. & Phaswana, M. G. (2003). The structure of values among Northern Sotho speaking people in South Africa: A lexical study. South African Journal of Psychology, 33 (2), 103-108. Renner, W. Salem, I. & Ottomeyer, K. (2007). Posttraumatic stress in asylum seekers from Chechnya, Afghanistan and West Africa - Differential findings obtained by quantitative and qualitative methods in three Austrian samples. In J. P. Wilson & C. Tang, (Eds.), The cross-cultural assessment of psychological trauma and PTSD (pp. 239 – 278). New York: Springer. Sahin, H. (2006). Unter unserem Seelenteppich. Lebensgeschichten türkischer Frauen in der Emigration [Under our mental carpet. Biographies of Turkish women in emigration]. Innsbruck (Austria): Studien-Verlag.


195

Salem, I., Gaugeler, R. & Renner, W. (submitted). Outpatient Pre-Admission and Aftercare for Patients with Depressive and Anxiety Disorders: Preliminary Results from an Austrian Clinic. 1st Mediterranean Interdisciplinary Forum on Social Sciences and Humanities (MIFS), Beirut, Lebanon, 23rd to 26th April, 2014. Schwab, P. J., & Tercanli, S. (1987). Körperliche und seelische Symptome bei Migranten in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Erstellung und Anwendung einer türkischen Fassung der Beschwerdeliste von D. V. Zerssen [Somatic and mental symptoms in migrants in the FRG. Development and application of a Turkish version of the list of complaints by D. V. Zerssen]. Psychotherapie und Medizinische Psychologie, 37, 419-423. Shweder, R. A. (2000). The psychology of practice and the practice of the three psychologies. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 3, 207-222. Siller, H. & Renner W. (submitted). Turkish migrant women with recurrent depression: Results from community based self-help groups. Tedeschi, R. G. & Calhoun, L. G. (1996). The post-traumatic growth inventory: Measuring the legacy of trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 9, 455-472. Tönnies, F. (1887/2001). Community and Civil Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Triandis, H. C. (1995). Individualism and collectivism. Boulder: Westview. Weiss, D. S., & Marmar, C. R. (1997). The impact of event scale - revised. In J. P. Wilson & T. M. Keane (Eds.), Assessing psychological trauma and PTSD (pp. 399-411). New York: The Guilford Press.


196

EUTHANASIA IN IRANIAN AND EGYPT LAW

Badr Soudani Saadery PhD Student, Department of Humanities, dubai Branch, Islamic Azad University, Iran

Abstract The issue of Euthanasia is one of the most significant topics of legal medicine and criminal law in most countries. This issue has occupied all religious and signify circles around the world. It happens in situations in which the patient is incurable and in great pain and distress thus asking the doctor terminates his life fool of pain and misery. This act will receive controversial vacations form. Religious scientific and social circles some of the above circles have offered reasons. In this study we are going to consider the laws of the two Muslim countries Iran and Egypt on the issue of Euthanasia and the question of causing death painlessly in an incurable patient out of mercy will be considered in the laws of the two countries to see if it is homicide or not? In Islamic views, human life is so sacred that the holy Quran clearly states that if anyone saves a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people. In Islam life is entrusted to people to care, nurture and safe keep. According to Islamic viewpoints a person does not own his/her body, so he is not permitted to do as he wishes to this body; Islam believes that the Almighty Allah has given us life and he only can take it away, therefore, ending a life personally or having some one to do it to relieve his pain and suffering is not only a crime, but also an unforgivable sin. The Shari'a has great details about the conditions were taking someone's life is permissible. Although Islam too puts great value on the quality of life over the length, in no respect the permission for killing a person in order to relive him of pain and suffering is granted. Therefore, mercy killing and euthanasia which have become controversial issues in the medical profession are issues that have no support in any sect of Islam, while the perspectives of other religions regarding these issues are different.

Keywords: Euthanasia, Shari'a, Law, Iran, Egypt Introduction This article discusses the perspectives of the shiite sect of Islam regarding euthanasia, physician assisted suicide and mercy killing. What has made medicine among the noblest and most honorable professions is the fact that in this profession a physician not only has a duty to relieve the physical ailments of his patients, but also has to consider his mental and spiritual needs as well. The safeguarding of the human life, which is the greatest of god's creation, after Allah himself, is entrusted to the physicians. The physician-patient relationship in the Islamic countries mostly leans on the belief that a physician always does the best for his/her patient and always protects life. This belief has established the myth of the "little god" physician in these countries, and has added to the honor and respect and also amount of trust that people bestow on physicians. The role of a compassionate physician is to protect his patient from death at all costs. In fact the regulations governing the practice of the medical profession stipulate that the physician must practice his profession for the benefit of the individual and the community and respect the life, safety and dignity of his patients. New advances in medicine and biotechnology have increased the controversies regarding such ethical issues as euthanasia; physician assisted suicide, or mercy killing. The medical profession in the past dealt only with the issue of saving lives, but it has now been forced to deal with the of subjects such as mercy killing and ending the life in not only an ethical and professional way


197

but step into the realms of philosophy and religion as well. The popular Egyptian scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, recently issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, equating euthanasia with murder, but allowing the withholding of treatment that is deemed useless. Life and death from Islamic perspective Islamic jurisprudence has four main sources, and all the Muslims rely on these sources to get answers for their questions. The primary source of Islamic law is the holy Quran. The second source is the Sunni which is the teachings, sayings and the life style of the Prophet of Islam. The third source is Ijma', (meaning consensus or acceptance of a matter by a specified group of people) , and the last one is Aghl or reason. Based on these sources Islamic laws and regulations are established and governed. To answer the question of Euthanasia, we will only rely on the primary source which is the holy Quran. After creating Adam, the Almighty congratulates himself for creating the best of the creations: “so blessed be Allah, the best of the creators ". Allah gave this creation the best position: “certainly we created man in the best make ". But this great creation is also doomed, and in the end death awaits him: "then after that you will most surely die" and " every soul shall taste of death, and you shall only be paid fully your reward on the resurrection day; then whoever is removed far away from the fire and is made to enter the garden he indeed has attained the object; and the life of this world is nothing but a provision of vanities ". Islam emphasizes that man has not created himself; therefore he has no right over his body. Our lives are not our lives for us to do with as we see fit, this life was entrusted to us for care, nurture and safe keep: "surely Allah's is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth; he brings to life and causes to die; and there is not for you besides Allah any guardian or helper” . Imam Ali, the first Imam of the shia Muslims, says that God is the owner and giver of life and his rights in giving and in taking are not to be violated: " He who gives life is he who is the owner of life and he who is taker of live"

In Islam the sanctuary of human life is a basic value as decreed by God. The gift of life is so valuable that the holy Quran states that saving of one life is the same as saving all the lives: " for this reason did we prescribe to the children of Israel that whoever slays a soul, unless it be for manslaughter or for mischief in the land, it is as though he slew all men; and whoever keeps it alive, it is as though he kept alive all men; and certainly our messengers came to them with clear arguments, but even after that many of them certainly act extravagantly in the land " Killing a person is a great sin. The holy Quran clearly points out this issue in the following verses: " and do not kill any one whom Allah has forbidden, except for a just cause, and whoever is slain unjustly, we have indeed given to his heir authority, so let him not exceed the just limits in slaying; surely he is aided ". In these and other verses related to the unforgivable act of killing, Allah states a social and educational fact. If a person kills one person, he would be able to kill others too without having any remorse. Therefore it can clearly be concluded that based on the Shiite doctrine, as well as other sects of Islam, suicide or euthanasia have no place. Attempting to kill oneself or others is a crime in Islam as well as a grave sin. The prophet of Islam (PBUH) has repeatedly warned those who attempt to kill themselves that they will be doomed in the eternity. This religion has listed and specified the indications for taking life (i.e., the exceptions to the general rule of sanctity of human life) and none of these include mercy killing or making allowance for it. Human life is to be respected unconditionally, irrespective of other circumstances. To kill a patient in order to relieve him of pain and suffering has no justification or provision in Islam. Furthermore, Islam has also put value on the suffering itself. In Quran, the Almighty states that Human beings were created to experience difficulties and hardship: "certainly we have created man to be in distress ".


198

Another dimension to the question of pain and suffering is the issue of patience and endurance, which are highly valued in Islam: "And bear in patience whatever (ill) may befall you: this, behold, is something to set one's heart upon." Suffering and pain are seen as forgiveness for the past sins. A person who is patient and endures the hardships will be rewarded, and his reward will be the easier life in the other world: "with difficulty is surely ease “A believer knows that when he is afflicted with pain, if the means of alleviating this pain has fallen short, he could turn to spiritual dimension of his life and stand the pain patiently to be rewarded hereafter. A believer also knows that life does not end in this world and in fact after this life, eternity is awaiting him, which has eternal pain and suffering for the non believers and happiness and joy for those who have endured the hardships, and safe guarded their belief in God: " But they who disbelieve, and deny Our revelations, such are rightful Peoples of the Fire. They will abide therein". “And those who believe and do good works: such are Right owners of the Garden. They will abide therein.” A believer knows that the hardships and joys of this world are incomparable to the hardships and joys of the other world. Although seeking medical treatments for an ill person is mandatory in Islam, illness and diseases in fact are viewed as tests for both patients and their families. Illness and specifically pain are not only a warning for the body that something is not right, but also a lesson in endurance for the people and that is to be thankful in times of health and patient in times of sickness. Islam does not look at the disease as just some physical ailments, but as tools for reaching spiritual values. In this regard both sickness and health can be tools for the faithful to get closer to the God. In an Islamic setting a patient must receive every possible psychological support and compassion from family and friends, including the patient's spiritual resources. So, futile or artificial means of keeping a dying patient alive is not also favored in Islam. The Islamic code of ethics states: "In his defense of Life, however, the Doctor is well advised to realize his limit and not transgress it. If it is scientifically certain that life cannot be restored, then it is futile to diligently keep on the vegetative state of the patient by heroic means of animation or preserve him by deep-freezing or other artificial methods. It is the process of life that the Doctor aims to maintain and not the process of dying. ". Islam emphasizes that the process of life must be maintained and not the process of dying.

To make these points more clear, the following passages are questions that a student news agency has put forward to different Shiite Islamic scholars regarding Euthanasia. The question put forward is this: "euthanasia has been interpreted in Persian as mercy killing or killing a patient out of mercy in order to shorten his pain and suffering knowing that based on the current medical science there is no cure or treatment available for him. What is your ruling regarding this type of killing? Can a parent or relative ask the doctor to commit this kind of act? If a physician, based on the patient's request, commits euthanasia, is he reliable?

In regard to this question, Ayatollah Khamanei the supreme leader of Islamic Republic of Iran, a distinguished Shiite Muslim scholar, as well as other well known and respected Shiite scholars including Ayatollah Safi Golpaigani, Noori Hamedani, Makarem Shirazi, Fazel Lankarani, and Bahjat have considered all types of euthanasia including fatal drug injection and physician assisted suicide as haram (forbidden) and a type of murder. Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi rules out that killing a human being is in no way acceptable even out of mercy or with the patient' consent or fear of treatment. The reason for this is first the holy verses of Quran and narratives of Imams, secondly the necessity of saving life. The philosophy behind this could be that granting this license could lead to abuses and killing people with the excuse of mercy and help. The people who want to commit suicide would also use this method. Also medical matters are not always certain and we've seen dying people that medicine was discouraged about their healing but miraculously have survived. These scholars have also ruled that the physicians who act in these cases are in the end culpable.


199

Ayatollah Safi Golpaigani, another shiite Moslem scholar, states that act of killing the person in this case, is the same as murder. Giving drugs, with the patients request, in order to accelerate his death is no license for killing, and the physician is responsible. Ayatollah Sanei has ruled that euthanasia is strictly forbidden and the same as killing all the society and subject to retribution. He states that adherence to emotions in a case of murder and killing has dangerous consequences for the society, besides having a severe punishment in the hereafter world. Patient's consent, he states, is no license for killing, as this is in fact consent for committing sin and murder. Conclusion Euthanasia which is defined as the deliberate killing of a person for his own benefit in order to relive him of enduring pain and suffering has raised many moral, ethical and religious questions. Such questions include: are we ever allowed to kill a terminally ill person who is in sever and debilitating pain? What do different religions have to say about such an act? And under what circumstances, if any, Islam in particular allows the performance of euthanasia? The word euthanasia derives from the Greek words “euthanatos” meaning good death or easy death. Euthanasia in fact means ending a patient's life according to certain principles and under certain circumstances, where medicine cannot cure or provide a life of acceptable quality. World Medical Association (WMA) describes euthanasia as the act of deliberately ending the life of a patient: "knowingly and intentionally performing an act that is clearly intended to end another person's life and that includes the following elements: the subject is a competent, informed person with an incurable illness who has voluntarily asked for his or her life to be ended; the agent knows about the person's condition and desire to die, and commits the act with the primary intention of ending the life of that person; and the act is undertaken with compassion and without personal gain" . For this reason euthanasia has also been called mercy killing. Although it seems to be a fairly new subject in the medical profession, in fact euthanasia is an issue that has concerned the physicians and scholars from the beginning of time, and its believed to be as old as history. Some scholars believe that the moral values concerning the ethical issues of euthanasia are the foundation of the civilized societies. Before Hippocrates, euthanasia was a routine procedure and physicians assumed that they had the authority to kill patients for whom they gave up the hope of recovery, without asking for their permission. They accepted this as a part of their medical practice. Hippocrates regarded this procedure as a hindrance to the establishment of confidentiality between physicians and patients. Probably this is the reason for the words in The Hippocratic Oath, "I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such counsel." This guarantee which Hippocrates provided by his oath, has established the basis of the confidence between physicians and patients for 2500 years.

One of the most important factors which determines society's attitude towards euthanasia is religion. As there are various sects and tariqas (manner, creeds) in Islam that cause significant differences, it is important to begin with an overall review of Islamic approach to euthanasia. But there are important differences between Islamic countries. The first group contains the countries which are governed by Islamic rules. These countries accept sheria (the code of law derived from the Quran and from the teachings and example of Prophet Mohammed) as their legal and administrative code, like Iran and Saudi Arabia. In Iran Shia Muslims and in Saudi Arabia Sunni Muslims as sects of Islam, rule the State. The second group consists of countries which have secularly governed states, but their laws are based on sheria, like Egypt and Algeria. Actually this is the largest group. Although the viewpoints regarding Euthanasia may be the same for both these sects, they have important differences regarding their ruling laws and regulations.

In the past few years, different European countries have drafted laws to govern euthanasia and these laws have been subject to many controversies and pro and con


200

arguments. Islamic views, however, on this subject are clear and based on Quran verses. Ethical issues are among Islam's foremost concerns, and the essential core of Islamic teachings is the perfection of ethical conduct of a person. Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) has said "I have been appointed as prophet of God to complete and perfect moral ethics." Since almost all the medical ethical issues that become the subjects of controversies and arguments in some way or another deal with the human life, it is necessary to seek the religious and philosophical views regarding these issues. In Islam the preservation of life and the welfare of a human being are in second place after the preservation of religion. In Quran there are many verses regarding the issue of life and death. These verses teach the believers that life is a gift from God and therefore sacred. As was pointed out in Iran, Sheria, or Islamic codes, is the legal and administrative code. Islam's approach to subject of death and dying are quite clear. As God is the giver of life, he alone can take the life away. Euthanasia and assisted suicide are therefore illegal and subject to criminal investigation. At the present neither the lay community nor the medical profession has been exposed to the international debate on these issues, but Shiite Moslem scholars have had rulings about these matters. In this article, the view points of Shiite sect of Islam are discussed and compared with the modern medical ethics views regarding euthanasia. Shia (Shiite) is a branch of Islam with the vast majority of its followers living in the Middle Eastern countries of Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon. The distinctive institution of Shia Islam is the Imamate - a much more exalted position than the Sunni Imam, who is primarily a prayer leader. In contrast to Sunni Muslims, who view the caliph only as a temporal leader and who lack a hereditary view of Muslim leadership, Shia Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad designated Ali to be his successor as Imam, exercising both spiritual and temporal leadership. In Iran there is a great difference between the level of medical technology and the physician-patient relationship regarding the contemporary norms. Paternalistic attitudes are common and this also suits the expectations of society. Physicians rarely inform their patients about their diagnosis and treatment, even when it is not a fatal or hopeless situation. Therefore patients put their faith in the hands of the doctors and trust them to make the best decisions for them. So if for any reason or under any circumstances euthanasia gains support, this could bring about major mistrust and misuse of medical treatment. References: The Holy Quran Ghamami, S. M. M. (2005). Calm Death, Govah season letter, No.s 2 & 3, 79 p. Taheri, H. (2006). Law papers set, Sadr Qom press, 1st edition. Moein, M. (2007). Farsi Dictionari, Zarrin third edition. Reece, J.F. & Chawla, S.K. (2006). Control of rabies in Jaipur, India by the sterilisation andvaccination of neighbourhood dogs. Veterinary Record, Vol.159, No.16 (September, 2006 ). pp. 379-383. ISSN 0042-4900 Reece, J.F. (2007). Rabies in India: an ABC approach to combating the disease in street dogs. Veterinary Record, Vol.161, No.9 (September, 2007) pp. 292-293. ISSN 0042-4900 Scarlett, J.M.; Salman, M.D.; New, J.G. & Kass, P.H. (2002). The role of veterinarypractitioners in reducing dog and cat relinquishments and euthanasias. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, Vol.220, No.3 (February, 2002) pp. 306- 311 ISSN 0003-1488 Totton, S.C.; Wandeler, A.I.; Ribble, C.S.; Rosatte, R.C. & McEwen, S.A. (2011). Stray dog population health in Jodhpur India in the wake of animal birth control (ABC( program. Preventive Veterinary Medicine, Vol.98, No. 2-3 (February, 2001) pp. 215- 22 ISSN 0167-5877 Http//www. isaronline.org.citymax.com/f/a.pdf


201

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE THE THEORY AND MEASUREMENT OF EQ

Haybat Abdul Samad, Dr. Chairperson of the English Department

American University of Culture & Education-AUCE Badaro Campus - Beirut

Abstract The paper examines the modern psychological construct known as emotional intelligence (abbreviated as EQ), developed by American psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer, and popularized by author Daniel Golemon in bestselling books since the 1990s. The basic definitions of "EQ" are set forth as the ability to identify, use, understand and manage emotions, both personally and in social relationships. The origins and early studies and theories on related concepts are set forth in a brief review of literature, relating EQ to earlier research on social intelligence and empathy. The use of scales, tests and measures of emotional intelligence is described, and other capabilities are related to EQ, such as altruism, leadership and social engagement. Various criticisms and objections to the theory are noted; however, the paper concludes that Emotional Intelligence, while not as popular or widely studied as it was a decade ago, remains a useful construct for assessing the ability of individuals to understand and control their feelings.

Keywords: Emotional intelligence, measurement, theories Introduction

The psychological concept known as Emotional Intelligence, EI or EQ, is a phenomenon of the last quarter century, although it has roots in much older social and psychological theories. After the publication of behavioral researcher Daniel Goleman’s bestselling book, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ (1995), the wider public was introduced to the theory of “emotional intelligence.” Mr. Golemon was not the creator of this new psychometric; however, he borrowed this term from the psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer, and expanded it into a popular theme. Under the general construct of "EQ," Goleman conceived of emotional awareness as a new function that could be learned, or could exist innately in certain people. According to Goleman, everybody has some level of EQ and anyone can enhance their emotional intelligence to monitor their own emotions and emotional states. Golemon argued that society, whether the public or the private sector should spend more resources on new programs and researches that would help millions of people develop this capacity. Golemon even wanted schools and government agencies to offer classes in emotional intelligence where students could learn and acquire EI before they went off to university or college, since this capacity evidently gets harder to acquire and develop after people reach adulthood.

Other authors have added their own interpretations to the EQ concept. The first example is the original model of emotional intelligence developed by Mayer and Salovey (1993). These researchers regard emotional intelligence as a series of skills that combine cognitions (thoughts) and emotions (feelings). The authors define emotional intelligence in various ways: the ability to recognize emotions, to access and use emotions to help support cognitive processes, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to handle or regulate emotions in order to promote emotional and intellectual development (Mayer & Salovey, 1997). Put another way, emotional intelligence, according to these authors, is made


202

up of four distinct components: identifying emotions (the ability to recognize emotions in the self and others); using emotions (the ability to invoke and reason with emotions); understanding emotions (the ability to understand complicated emotions and emotional states, especially how these emotions shift from moment to moment); and managing emotions (controlling emotions in the self and others).

Researchers who have developed and investigated emotional intelligence maintain that "EQ" tests for emotional intelligence are important predictors of educational and occupational skills and can account for differences that tests of cognitive ability are unable to predict (Matthews, Roberts & Zeidner, 2004). In spite of this, there remain many difficulties in establishing the claim that emotional intelligence is a viable predictor of outcomes, due to the differences in definitions and the types of measures that are used. The differences include the "reasoning ability" approach of Mayer and Salovey (1993) and the environmental adaptation approach of Goleman (1998). The various models for emotional intelligence have also led to the development of a variety of test instruments to measure emotional intelligence; these include the Mayer Salovey Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) (Mayer & Salovey, 1993), the Emotional Competency Inventory (ECI) (Goleman, 1998), and the Schutte Self Reporting Inventory (SSRI) (Schutte et al, 1998).

As a result of all these variations in approaches to the investigation of emotional intelligence, there is great uncertainty regarding the exact nature of emotional intelligence and its relationship to other attributes like IQ and self-awareness. An additional problem with the research into emotional intelligence is that the majority of these investigations have taken place in the United States, where the theoretical concept evolved. One important element of emotional intelligence is the ways cultural norms and expectations can influence an individual’s understanding of emotions, and the ways in which emotional information should be processed. The psychiatric and social usefulness of emotional intelligence as a predictor of other attributes or outcomes has not been extensively tested in different cultural environments, such as the Asian, Arab or African worlds. This America-centered history is a major gap in developing evidence that emotional intelligence is a measurable concept and a universal attribute. In short, because the concepts of emotional intelligence and emotional competence are relatively new, there is still great controversy regarding the definition of the terns and measures to be employed when testing the relationship between emotional intelligence and other attributes. As we have seen, the general concept of emotional intelligence suggests that an individual can recognize emotions in him or herself and in others, and can use that recognition as the basis for cognition and action. The implication of this theory and model is that an individual with a high level of emotional intelligence is more likely to also demonstrate a high quality of social and interpersonal relationships, and more likely to show compassion, altruism and the ability to express love and other emotions. While this claim has been tested by some researchers, there has been relatively little research into the measurable relationships of the thoughts and feelings of high EQ individuals, and other qualities such as nurturing, empathy, social engagement and moral consciousness. As we will see, the main definitions of EQ and its related capacities tend to revolve around the idea of high-EQ persons thinking and acting more effectively. Definitions Emotional Competency: A learned capability based on emotional intelligence that results in outstanding performance at work (Goleman, 1998). Emotional Competency Inventory (ECI): an instrument developed by Goleman (1995; 1998) to assess emotional intelligence. Emotional Intelligence: The ability of individuals to understand their own emotions as well as the emotions of others and to use emotions to think effectively (Mayer, & Salovey,


203

1997). Mayer Salovey Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT): A test instrument intended to measure emotional intelligence with a strong focus on the ability to use emotional intelligence in practical situations (Mayer & Salovey, 1993). Schutte Self Report Inventory (SSRI): A relatively brief emotional intelligence assessment tool composed of 33 questions and based on self-reporting (Schutte et al, 1998). Social Intelligence: A construct similar to emotional intelligence that involves the ability to understand and act on an understanding of a social situation. Background and Literature The concept of emotional intelligence actually began evolving from the research of Thorndike and Stein in 1937, which proposed a new construct of "social intelligence" (Freshman & Rubino, 2004). This term was intended to describe the differences that individuals displayed in their social interactions, with some individuals possessing greater ability than others to understand and influence others. Wechsler (1940) then developed a model of intelligence that considered the dimension of intellective intelligence, which involved cognitive skills, and non-intellective intelligence, which involved a social and emotional set of skills. This model gradually evolved, with an increasing amount of evidence suggesting the existence of emotional intelligence that was different from cognitive intelligence. Mayer and Salovey (1993) engaged in research that indicated emotional intelligence involved a set of hierarchical abilities. At the top of the hierarchy is the ability to accurately perceive, assess and express emotions. This is followed by ability to generate feelings when it is necessary to understand the self or others. The next level is the ability to understand emotions, which is followed by the ability to regulate emotions. More recent research into the ability construct of emotional intelligence suggests there are as many as 24 skills or abilities associated with emotional intelligence (Freshman & Rubino, 2004). Goleman’s (1998) model is very similar to that of Mayer and Salovey (1993), but focuses on competency rather than ability. Some of the more recent models postulate five domains that can be measured to determine the respective abilities of an individual. These domains are: interpersonal skills; intrapersonal skills; stress management; adaptability; and general mood (Hayashi, 2006). Although the concept of emotional intelligence is different from cognitive or general intelligence, there is some evidence that emotional intelligence affects the way cognitive intelligence is used (Reiff, et al, 2001). Goleman (1995) cites a longitudinal study in which the level of impulse control or self-regulatory behavior among 4 year old children correlated to their later academic performance based on standard measures such as grade point average (GPA). There is also evidence that a higher level of emotional intelligence correlates with goal orientation and life satisfaction among adults (Martinz-Pons, 1997). A study to determine the correlation between the MSCEIT and standard cognitive ability markers has determined that “EQ” is a standard form of intelligence and can be measured if reliable test instruments are developed and validated (Reid, 2003).

There is a great deal of controversy about the various definitions and measures that should be used for the investigation of emotional intelligence due to the relatively recent development of the concept (Yoder, 2005). Mayer and Salovey (1993) developed their emotional intelligence scale, the MSCEIT, to measure emotional intelligence based on their own four component model. It is an ability-based test, which assesses the ability of individuals to perform tasks and solve emotional problems, with the output of the testing process scored to provide an assessment of the functional level for each of the four emotional intelligence components. Goleman (1998) developed the Emotional Competency Inventory (ECI), which measures the presence of various skills or competencies associated with emotional intelligence in an individual. The ECI is a proprietary assessment tool that is


204

primarily sold to private business, and is not often used in academic study and research. The Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-I) was developed by Bar-On (2000), and has been widely tested in the U.S. to support its validity. The EQ-I is a relatively lengthy and comprehensive test that is structured similarly to some cognitive intelligence tests. A simplified form of emotional intelligence assessment tool was developed by Schutte (Schutte et al, 1998); this is known as the Schutte Self-Report Inventory (SSRI), and has the same level of validity as the EQ-i. In addition to these three frequently used measures of emotional intelligence, there are a large number of test instruments that have been developed by researchers that have been partially or fully validated. As a result, there is little agreement regarding the specific instruments that should be used to assess emotional intelligence. Some of the investigations of emotional intelligence, however, use qualitative methods in an attempt to broadly examine the concept, due to the uncertainty regarding the definitions, scope and methods of measurement. Yoder (2005) used an interview methodology to examine the perceptions of educational administrators on the issue of emotional intelligence. Yoder's methodology also called for each of the interviewees to take the MSCEIT prior to the interview, to provide a common experience for the interviewees with respect to their understanding of emotional intelligence. The sample size was relatively large for an interview methodology and consisted of 70 participants, with random selection used to identify potential study participants. The findings of the study indicate that emotional intelligence does not consist solely of actions or viewpoints that can be easily measured. As a result, Yoder's findings tend to support the Bar-On approach to emotional intelligence, in which EQ functions apart from cognitive processes but nonetheless can have an impact on cognition. Studies of EQ, Social Intelligence and Leadership

The possible relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership approach the leadership component from a transformational perspective. Barbuto and Burbach (2006) examined the relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership using self-reported and observer-reported data on public officials. The purpose of their study was to determine if emotional intelligence is a predictor of transformational leadership; however, the study was based on the assumption that transformational leadership is more effective than other types of leadership. The findings determined that there was a strong positive correlation between the domains of emotional intelligence and transformational leadership ability in the self-reported data, but no correlation in the data produced by the independent observers of the leaders. The researchers concluded that the difference in findings was due to a bias in the methodology, with different types of instruments used to collect data from leaders and observers. As a result, the study concluded that there is a positive correlation between emotional intelligence and the use and effectiveness of transformational leadership. The area in which there was the highest level of correlation was in the area of interpersonal skills, which supposedly resulted in more effective use of transformational leadership techniques.

Kobe, Reiter-Palmon & Rickers (2001) claimed social and emotional intelligence are overlapping concepts, with emotional intelligence influencing both leadership and social intelligence. Social intelligence implies the ability to understand and manage other people, which are viewed as an essential role of leadership. Social intelligence has been validated as a distinct construct of intelligence and can serve as a predictor of leadership behavior (Bass, 1990). Their study (Kobe et al, 2001) used the EQ-I, while social intelligence and leadership were measured with questionnaires developed for the purposes of the study. The data was analyzed by correlation; there was a positive correlation between all three constructs of social intelligence, emotional intelligence and leadership, with social intelligence and emotional intelligence functioning as predictors of leadership abilities. In addition, there was a positive correlation between social and emotional intelligence, with individuals scoring similarly in


205

both constructs. The authors contend, however, that the construct of emotional intelligence is not substantially different from that of social intelligence and question whether it is indeed a separate component of intelligence. This criticism basically accepts the motion that a common construct exists, looked at both externally (socially) and internally (emotionally)

Reiff et al (2001) investigated the relationship between learning disabilities and emotional intelligence among college students, with the findings indicating that students with learning disabilities have lower scores in the areas of stress management and adaptability. In addition, the findings of the study indicated that there were gender differences in the relationship between emotional intelligence and learning disabilities. The study involved a sampling of 54 college students with previous identified leaning disabilities and a control group of 78 students with a previously identified learning disability. Emotional intelligence was evaluated using the EQ-I developed by Bar-On (2000), with the findings from the study and control groups analyzed by means of MANOVA statistics. The authors contended that lower levels of emotional intelligence among students with learning disabilities suggested that they should receive additional instruction in the areas of stress management and adaptability. The literature on emotional intelligence, its measurement and the related concepts of social and cultural intelligence is now extensive, but the construct remains nebulous and difficult to isolate, like many psychological theories. The construct has been tested, measured and analyzed, however, and there is evidence that "EQ" is closely related to positive psychological and social qualities, including empathy, altruism, leadership and social engagement. "High EQ" individuals perform better socially. At the same time, the popularity of the "emotional intelligence" concept has declined, and there is less public and academic discussion, as new themes and theories in psychology and psychiatry emerge. Golemon himself has shifted his writings to the theme of attention in a new work called Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence (2013), suggesting that popular interest is turning back to the old themes of leadership, social action and learning abilities and styles. Conclusion

The psychological construct of EI or emotional intelligence gained widespread popularity and a certain degree of academic acceptance in the 1990s, but EQ or EI does not yet deserve the claim that it is a "neuroscience." Critics have objected that nearly all measures and tests of EI rely upon self-reported qualities and feelings that are subject to interaction bias, which is the tendency for subjects to present themselves in a positive or ideal social image. Some researchers have raised concerns about the extent to which self-report EI measures like the SSRI correlate with established personality dimensions, such as those within the Big Five (Gignac, 2005). Generally, self-report EI measures and personality measures have been said to converge because they both attempt to measure psychological traits and states, and because they are both measured in the self-report form; specifically, there appear to be two components of the Big Five that stand out as being most related to self-report EI – neuroticism and extraversion. In particular, "neuroticism" has been shown to relate to negative emotionality and anxiety (Costa & McCrae, 1992). In conclusion, Emotional Intelligence was a highly popular and controversial theory when it emerged in the 1990s, and remains a viable concept despite the lack of empirical proof and reliable measurement. Whether all emotional awareness and expression amounts to "intelligence" remains open to debate. What is certain is that the new ideas of Mayer, Salovy and Golemon raised interest in the emotions as a separate category of psychological capability; this contrasts with the traditional Freudian or Behaviorist view of emotion as an expression of lack of control, or even hysteria. Further researcher into the specific basic of emotional affect in the brain would go a long way toward satisfying the criticism that EI is merely a new word for an old behavior, and a meaningless substitute for clear measures of brain-based intelligence and physiological activity


206

References: Barbuto, J.E. & Burback, M.E. The emotional intelligence of transformational leaders: A field study of elected officials. Journal of Social Psychology, 146 (1), 51-64. (2006). Bar-On, R. Emotional and social intelligence: Insights from the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i). In Reuven Bar-On and James D.A. Parker (Eds.), Handbook of Emotional Intelligence. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000. Bass, B.M. Bass & Stodgill’s Handbook of Leadership. New York: The Free Press, 1990 Freshman, B. & Rubino, L. Emotional intelligence skills for maintaining social networks in healthcare organizations. Hospital Topics, 82(3), 2-9, 2004. Goleman, D. Emotional intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ. New York: Bantam Books, 1995. Goleman, D. Working with Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam Books, 1998. Golemon, D. (Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence New York: Harper, 2013. Kobe, L.M., Reiter-Palmon, R. & Rickers, J.D. Self-reported leadership: Experiences in relation to inventoried social and emotional intelligence. Current Psychology, 20(2), 154-163, 2001. Liff, S.B. Social and emotional intelligence: Applications for developmental education. Journal of Developmental Education, 26(3), 28-32, 2003. Matthews, G., Roberts, R.D. & Zeidner, M. Seven myths about emotional intelligence. Psychological Inquiry, 15(3), 179-196, 2004. Mayer, J.D. & Salovey, P.). The intelligence of emotional intelligence. Intelligence, 17, 433-442, 1993. Mayer, J.D., & Salovey, P. What is emotional intelligence? In P. Salovey & D. Sluyter (Eds.), Emotional Development and Emotional Intelligence: Implications for Educators (pp. 3-31). New York: Basic Books, 1997 Reiff, H.B., Hatzes, N., Bramel, M.H. & Gibbon, T. The relation of LD and gender with emotional intelligence in college students. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 34(1), 66-78, 2001. Schutte, N.S., Malouff, J., Hall, L.E., Haggerty, D.J., Cooper, J.T., Golden, C.J. & Dornheim, L. Development and validation of a measure of emotional intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences, 25(2), 167-177, 1998. Wechsler, D. Nonintellective factors in general intelligence. Psychological Bulletin, 37, 444-445, 1940. Yoder, D.M. Organizational climate and emotional intelligence: An appreciative inquiry into a leaderful community. Community College Journal of Research & Practice, 29(1), 45-62, 2005)


207

OUTPATIENT PRE-ADMISSION AND AFTERCARE FOR PATIENTS WITH DEPRESSIVE AND ANXIETY DISORDERS:

PRELIMINARY RESULTS FROM AN AUSTRIAN CLINIC

Ingrid Salem, MA, PhD Richard Gaugeler, MD

Krankenhaus Waiern, Psychosomatische Abteilung, Feldkirchen, Austria Prof. Walter Renner, PhD

Pan-European University, Faculty of Psychology, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Abstract

Outpatient pre-admission and aftercare is in common use for inpatients with addictive and post-traumatic disorders but is rarely offered to patients suffering from depression or anxiety. Thus, this pilot study has installed and evaluated psychological pre-admission and aftercare on a group basis for patients who had sought inpatient treatment of depression or anxiety at an Austrian psychosomatic clinic. Outpatient pre-admission care aimed at supporting patients ahead of admitting them to the clinic. During the first year of the project N = 59 patients (N=37 or 63% of them female) with a mean age of 47.7 years (s = 11.1 years) participated in pre-admission care. A statistically significant reduction of clinical symptoms was achieved as indicated by the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), although in most cases symptoms were still clinically relevant and necessitated inpatient admissions. After leaving outpatient care, two steps of aftercare (ten weekly group sessions each) were supplemented by assertiveness trainings, relaxation, or psycho-education in coping with stress. Older patients were offered special programs ("60+"). During Step 1, aggregated data from regular and 60+ groups (N = 100, 71 female, mean age 53.1, s = 13.1), indicated that symptom reduction achieved during the inpatient stay had been maintained. During Step 2, results from N = 36 patients, (N = 28 female, mean age 53.1, s = 11.6) pointed to a statistically significant reduction of symptoms. The findings suggest providing aftercare for a period of at least 20 week to patients with anxiety or depression.

Keywords: Depression, anxiety, inpatient treatment, pre-admission care, aftercare Introduction Aims of the Study

The present study started from theoretical considerations and empirical results which suggested that inpatient treatment of patients with depressive or anxiety disorders should be supplemented both by pre-admission care and by aftercare on an outpatient basis. Pre-Admission Care

First encouraging evidence on the effects of pre-admission care provided by a German psychosomatic clinic has been provided by Rief, Leibl, and Fichter (1991) on the basis of data from N = 3,668 patients. More recently, Kobelt, Winkler and Petermann (2011) focused on the importance of preparing patients for their hospital admission by preceding interventions and, more generally, Peukert (2011) emphasized the financial effects of outpatient care.

At a psychosomatic clinic like the present one at Waiern (Austria), in contrast to acute care, patients have to wait for their admission for several weeks. Pre-admission care did not


208

aim at symptom reduction in the first place, but rather was intended to prevent deterioration of symptomatology by professional support. In single cases, of course, pre-admission care might render in-patient admissions unnecessary. Aftercare

For patients with addictive (Thiel & Ackermann, 2004) and post-traumatic stress disorders (Hoffmann & Wondrack, 2007; Ludwig, 2008) aftercare since several decades poses an important part of regular treatment. For affective, anxiety and somatoform disorders, however, aftercare has just been started to be installed at some German clinics, following an initiative by the German pension insurance scheme (Berger, Brakemeier, Klesse & Schramm, 2009). A longitidinal study has yielded encouraging results (Kobelt und Schmid-Ott, 2010) and there is some indication that especially patients with high symptom load (Kobelt, Nickel, Grosch, Lamprecht & Künsebeck, 2004) as well as socially underpriviledged patients of psychosomatic clinics (Kobelt, Lieverscheidt, Grosch & Petermann, 2010) benefit from aftercare.

Apart from this encouraging evidence from Germany, little is known about the effects of psychological aftercare, especially on an international basis. After obtaining positive results by a previous small-scale study (Renner, Salem & Scholz, 2009) the present investigation aimed at studying the effects of aftercare for patients with anxiety and depression in a patient sample from outside Germany, taking the possibility into account that the results might be generalized cautiously to international patient populations.

Aftercare aimed at a continued stabilization of symptomatology after discharge from the clinic, i.e., symptoms were expected not to deteriorate even under conditions of everyday stress, stemming either from the patients' vocational obligations, from a problematic family system, or both (cf., the "vulnerability-stress model" of clinical psychology, e.g. Ingram & Luxton, 2005). In this respect, it should be considered that this type of aftercare to date does not exist in Austria on a larger scale. It should also be noted that outpatient psychological treatment or psychotherapy are not financed by the Austrian insurence system on a regular basis and thus must be considered unaffordable for most patients. Special Aftercare for Older Patients

Demographic development in Central Europe is leading to increasing numbers of older patients who have special needs with respect to therapy and aftercare and, in contrast to younger people, are interested in special themes like dealing with life as a pensioner, feeling lonely at old age, coping with grief after the death of a beloved relative and dealing with the finite nature of one's own life. On the other hand, themes like returning to employment after a longer period of illness have lost relevance for older patients. From these considerations we have decided to install special offers for aftercare aiming at the special need of patients beyond 60 years of age. Procedure and Results

Figure 1 gives a summary of the procedure in the course of pre-admission care, in-patient treatment and aftercare, together with assessment occasions (t0 to t4). It can be seen that during pre-admission assessment and at various other stages of the procedure, patients may be referred to other services which might seem more appropriate in specific cases.

Figure 1 also shows the possibility of referring patients to a special offer aiming at psychological stabilization in cases where in-patient treatment is not considered necessary after completing pre-admission care. Assessment at t0 takes place before pre-admission care commences, Assessments at t1 and t2 take place immediately prior to and after in-patient treatment respectively. Follow-up Assessments t3 and t4 take place after patients have completed ten sessions of aftercare Step 1 and Step 2 respectively.


209

Figure 1: Flowchart: From Pre-Admission Care to Aftercare

From Figure 2 the number of patients participating in pre-admission and stabilization

groups during the first project year can be seen. During the first year of the pilot project A total of N = 59 patients (N=37 or 63% of them female) with a mean age of 47.7 years (s = 11.1 years) participated in pre-admission groups during the first project year. Whereas during the first months the number of participants rose constantly, the numbers dropped to a more manageable group size when stabilization group had commenced.

Figure 2: Number of patients participating in Pre-Admission and Stabilization Groups during the first project

year (Weeks 1 to 52)

0

5

10

15

20

25

1 4 7 1013161922252831343740434649

Pre-AdmissionGroup

StabilizationGroup


210

Figures 3 and 4 show the number of participants in the first project year for aftercare Step 1

Figure 3: Number of patients participating in aftercare Step 1 and Step 2 groups during the first project year

(Weeks 1 to 52) and 2 and 60+. For aftercare 60+ only Step 1 was provided. Aftercare Step 1 was provided in two or three sub-groups. It can be seen that there was constant interest in all of these offers over the year, with Step 1 attracting considerable more patients than Step 2.

Figure 4: Number of patients participating in aftercare 60+ groups during the first project year (Weeks 1 to 52)

In Step 1, taking patients from regular aftercare groups and 60+ groups together, a

total of N = 100 (71 female, mean age 53.1, s = 13.1) patients participated. For Step 2, a total of N = 36 (N = 28 of them female, with a mean age of 53.1 years, s = 11.6) participated during the first project year.

As a measure of clinical symptomatology, the German version of the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI, Franke, 2000) was used. Apart from nine disorder specific subscales, the Global Severity Index (GSI) represents the arithmetic mean of all items and thus is a measure of a patients' total symptom load.

On the BSI, clinical symptoms are indicated on a five-point scale, ranging from 0 = "Not at all" to 4 = "Severe". T-Values of 50 equal the population mean and T-Values < 60 may be regarded as clinically inconspicuous. T-Values between 60 and 70 are marginally conspicuous and T-Values > 70 are clearly clinically conspicuous.

05

10152025303540

1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49

Step 1

Step 2

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

1 4 7 1013161922252831343740434649

Aftercare 60+


211

Table 1 summarizes the subscales of the questionnaire.

BSI Subscale α Number of Items

Item example (shortened)

1. Somatization .79 7 Heart or chest aches 2. Obsessive / compulsive .84 6 Compulsion to control over and over again... 3. Interpersonal insecurity .81 4 Feeling inferior to others 4. Depression .87 6 Thoughts of ending one's life 5. Anxiety .81 6 Feeling overly scared 6. Aggression/Hostility .72 5 Feeling irritable and nervous 7. Phobic anxiety .82 5 Feeling anxious in open places... 8. Paranoid ideation .78 5 Thinking that others take advantage of you 9. Psychoticism .70 5 The idea that someone controls your thoughts GSI Global Severity Index .96 49

Table 1: Scales and subscales of the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI)

Figure 5 shows the results from the pre-admission groups during project year 1.

Figure 5: Results of pre-admission groups – Symptoms on clinical scales of the BSI as indicated by T-Values

(population mean = 50, standard deviation = 10)

It can be seen that clinical symptomatology was clearly above T = 70 before the intervention, indicating clinically conspicuous results. After the intervention, symptomatology had dropped. On the BSI's scale, ranging from 0 to 4, the Global Severity Index (GSI) was M = 1.71 (s = 0.72) before the intervention. At the end of pre-admission group therapy, the mean GSI was M = 1.44 (s = 0.82), indicating an improvement of symptomatology which was significant at the 1% level (t = 3.410, df = 58, p = .001). The effect size amounted to d = 0.45529, resembling a "medium" effect in the sense of Cohen (1988).

Figure 6: Results of aftercare Step I groups (Aggregated data from regular and 60+ groups) – Symptoms on

clinical scales of the BSI as indicated by T-Values (population mean = 50, standard deviation = 10)

29 Effect size for paired-samples' t-Test, computed by the online tool http://www.cognitiveflexibility.org/effectsize/

20304050607080

PRE

POST

20304050607080

PRE

POST


212

From Figure 6, which shows the aggregated results from the regular and the 60+ interventions, it is evident that symptoms have slightly deteriorated on most of the BSI disorder specific scales. This can be explained by the fact that during the post-discharge period of time patients were confronted with stress, both from their vocational activities and from their personal relationships. Still, in spite of the considerable sample size of N = 100, deterioration of symptoms as indicated by the Global Index GSI was statistically non-significant (Pre M = 1.06, s = 0.79; Post M = 1.14, s = 0.80; t = - 1.447, df = 99, p = .151). Figure 7 shows the results obtained from Aftercare Step 2 group.

Here, on most of the disorder specific scales, symptoms could be reduced considerably. The average GSI amounted to M = 1.07 (s = 0.76) before and to M = 0.88 (s = 0.76) at the end of Aftercare Step 2. This improvement is statistically significant at the 5% level (t = 2.256, df = 35, p = 0,030 with an effect size of d = 0.376.

Figure 7: Results of aftercare Step II groups (Aggregated data from regular and 60+ groups) – Symptoms on

clinical scales of the BSI as indicated by T-Values (population mean = 50, standard deviation = 10)

Conclusion From the results it became evident that both, psychological pre-admission care and

aftercare are beneficial with respect to the patients' ability to cope with their symptoms. Pre-admission group participation overall had a medium and statistically highly significant effect on symptom reduction.

With respect to aftercare, we have found that the first ten weeks (Step 1) of the intervention had enabled patients to avoid statistically significant deterioration with respect to their symptom load. Moreover, those patients who had participated in Step 2 of aftercare even achieved a statistically significant, additional reduction of symptomatology.

From these results it may be concluded that clinical psychological pre-admission care has a clearly documented effect on symptom reduction for patients diagnosed with anxiety or depression. For the same group of patients, aftercare generally may be recommended as a means of preserving the effects achieved by inpatient treatment; in order to achieve additional effects on symptom reduction, however, a duration of aftercare exceeding a period of three months is recommended, with a duration of six months being clearly beneficial. Future research is needed in order to assess the effects of an aftercare duration exceeding a six months period. References: Berger, M., Brakemeier, E. L., Klesse, C. & Schramm, E. (2009). Depressive Störungen. Stellenwert psychotherapeutischer Verfahren [Depressive disorders. The importance of psychotherapeutic methods]. Nervenarzt, 80, 540-555. Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

20304050607080

PRE

POST


213

Franke, G. H. (2000). Brief Symptom Inventory von L. R. Derogatis (Kurzform der SCL-90-R) - Deutsche Version [Brief Symptom Inventory by L. R. Derogatis. (Short version of SCL-90-R) – German version). Göttingen (Germany): Beltz. Hoffmann, J. & Wondrak, I. (2007). Amok und zielgerichtete Gewalt an Schulen. Früherkennung, Risikomanagement, Kriseneinsatz, Nachbetreuung [Amok and purposeful violence at schools. Early detection, risk management, crisis intervention, aftercare]. Frankfurt a. M. (Germany): Verlag für Polizeiwissenschaft. Ingram, R. E. & Luxton, D. D. (2005). "Vulnerability-Stress Models." In B.L. Hankin & J. R. Z. Abela (Eds.), Development of Psychopathology: A vulnerability stress perspective (pp. 32-46). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Kobelt, A., Lieverscheidt, B., Grosch, E. & Petermann, F. (2010). Ambulante psychosomatische Nachsorge und soziale Ungleichheit [Outpatient psychosomatic aftercare and social inequality]. Psychotherapeut, 55, 43-48. Kobelt, A., Nickel, L., Grosch, E. V., Lamprecht, F. & Künsebeck, H.-W. (2004). Inanspruchnahme psychosomatischer Nachsorge nach stationärer Rehabilitation [Use of psychosomatic aftercare following inpatient rehabilitation]. Psychotherapie, Psychosomatik, Medizinische Psychologie, 54, 58-64. Kobelt, A. & Schmid-Ott, G. (2010). Result of long-term follow-up study of inpatient psychotherapy followed by systematic outpatient psychotherapeutic aftercare. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 15, 94-104. Kobelt, A., Winkler, M. & Petermann, F. (2011). Vorbereitung und Nachbereitung der medizinischen Rehabilitation am Beispiel der psychosomatischen Rehabilitation [Preparing and following up medical rehabilitation examplified by psychosomatic rehabilitation]. Bundesgesundheitsblatt – Gesundheitsforschung – Gesundheitsschutz, 54, 451-457. Ludwig, C. (2008). Betreuungs- und Kriseninterventionsangebote am Flughafen: Erstbetreuung von Passagieren und deren Angehörigen sowie Nachbetreuung von Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern [Support and crisis intervention at the airport: First aid to passengers and their relatives and aftercare for employees]. In M. Trummer & M. Helm (Hrsg.), Implementierung und Weiterentwicklung der Psychosozialen Notfallversorgung. Konzepte und Erfahrungswerte [Implementing and developing psychosocial emergency care. Concepts and experiences], (pp. 169 – 179). Frankfurt a. M. (Germany): Verlag für Polizeiwissenschaft. Peukert, R. (2011). Vom Strukturkonservatismus der institutionsorientierten zu personenzentrierten Hilfen in der psychiatrischen Versorgung – oder: von der "Psychiatrie-Gemeinde" zur "Gemeindepsychiatrie" [From structural conservatism of institition oriented to person oriented aids in psychiatric care – or: from: "psychiatric community" to "community psychiatry"]. http://ibrp-online.de/gemeinde5b.htm, Retrieved on 22nd April, 2011. Renner, W. Salem, I. & Scholz, H. (2009). Nachbetreuung von Patientinnen und Patienten mit psychischen und psychosomatischen Störunge. [Aftercare for patients with psychological and psychosomatic disorders]. Praxis Klinische Verhaltensmedizin und Rehabilitation, 84, 106 - Rief, W., Leibl, C. & Fichter, M. M. (1991). Ambulante psychotherapeutische Vorbehandlungen bei Patienten einer medizinisch-psychosomatischen Klinik [Outpatient psychotherapeutic pre-admission care for patients of a medical/psychosomatic clinic]. Verhaltenstherapie, 1, 219-222. Thiel, G. & Ackermann, R. (2004). Verlauf und Ergebnisse der ambulanten Nachbetreuung in den Hamburger Sozialtherapeutischen Wohngemeinschaften für Drogenabhängige [Course and results of outpatient aftercare in Hamburg based social therapeutic shared accomodation for drug addicts]. Wiener Zeitschrift für Suchtforschung, 27, 37 – 48.


214

A CONSTITUENT OF CHAROTAR UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Vipin Vageriya, Mr.Asst. Prof. cum Head of Department Child Health Nursing, Manikaka Topawala Institute of Nursing

Abstract “A study to assess the effectiveness of Structured teaching Program on knowledge

about the prevention of lead poisoning among the mothers of toddlers in selected rural areas of Hassan in Karnataka”.

Keywords: Lead poisoning, rural areas Introduction

Children age between the 1- 3years are more exposure to lead poisoning. In the domestic poisoning the lead poisoning is one of the silent killers in toddlers. When it is ingested, inhaled, or absorbed through skin, lead is highly toxic to human’s body. It persists in the soil, in the air, in drinking water, and in homes. Normal blood lead level in body is : Adults:Less than 20 micrograms/dL Children:Less than 10 micrograms/dL

At high levels, lead poisoning causes coma, convulsions and death. At low level lead poisoning in toddlers causes reductions in IQ and attention span, reading and learning disabilities, hyperactivity, impaired growth, behavioural problems, and hearing loss. Worldwide, six sources for most lead exposure are: Gasoline additives Food can soldering Lead-based paints Ceramic glazes Drinking water systems Cosmetic and folk remedies. Objectives of the study 1. Assess the pre-test level of knowledge about the prevention of lead Poisoning among mothers of toddlers. 2. Assess the Post-test level of knowledge about the prevention of lead Poisoning among mothers of toddlers. 3. Evaluate the effectiveness of structured teaching program by comparing The pre-test and post-test knowledge level of mothers of toddlers. 4. Associate the post-test knowledge of mothers about the prevention of lead poisoning among mothers of toddlers with selected socio demographic variables Hypotheses

There is a significant increase in the knowledge about the prevention of lead poisoning in toddlers after the structured teaching program than before among the mothers


215

Research methodology Research design

The research design selected for this study belongs to the pre experimental design with one group pre-test and post-test design. This research design includes the manipulation, no control and no randomization. The structured teaching program on prevention and management of lead poisoning administered as a manipulation. The design carried out by non-probability convenient sampling with no control group. Sampling technique In this study, the non-probability convenient sampling was used. As per the procedure of the convenient sampling 60 mothers of toddlers were choose in Alur village at Hassan, Karnataka. Criteria for the selection of the sample Inclusion criteria The mother of the toddler children. Mothers those were willing to participate. . Those who can able to read and write Kannada,Hindi. Exclusion criteria Those who are not available at the time of study. Those who have sick child. Table 1 -Distribution of overall pre test and post test level of knowledge on prevention of lead poisoning among

mothers of toddlers-

Pre test Post test Percentage Of Effectiveness

Paired t- Test value

P-value Mean SD % Mean

SD %

Knowledge

5.91 2.57 19.66% 20.7 2.14

69%

49.30%

41.77 S*** P=0.0001

Table- 5 mean, SD and percentage comparing over all pre test and post test knowledge. N=60 * **-Significance P < 0.001

Results

Over all pre-test knowledge mean 5.91 SD 2.57and mean percentage is 19.66% Over all pre-test knowledge mean 20.7SD 2.14and mean percentage is 69%. Paired t test analysis used to test the pre-tests and post-tests score of knowledge. The‘t’ value is 41.77 (P < 0.001) shows that there is significant increase in the knowledge after STP. The percentage effectiveness is 49.3% The chi-square value shows that there is no significance association between age of the mother, educational status of the mother, occupation, type of work, types of family, religion, Type of employment of the mother, age of the child,types of house and source of information about the lead poisoning and knowledge (P > 0.05) Implications of the Study The finding of the study has implication in nursing education, nursing practice, nursing administration and nursing research. Nursing education The nursing curriculum should include the prevention lead and common metal poisoning in children in the child health nursing in the Basic level in diploma as well as under graduate in nursing. The post graduate level program of nursing mainly specialization in child health nursing can be included the preventive aspect of the lead and different common hazardous metallic poisoning knowledge as an essential aspect in the curriculum.


216

Nursing Practice Self-instructional module and educational program about prevention of lead poisoning

in children among the nursing personnel implemented through the various child health care services. The introduction of various interventional educational programs in the pediatric care homes and all pediatric specialty units will promotes the wellbeing of the child and minimize the stress and incidence of lead poisoning. Nursing Administration Educational program about the lead poisoning as an essential component of holistic and quality nursing care to prepare children fore the clinical procedure and reduce the health effects of lead. A small training course about the prevention of lead poisoning will provide guidelines for the health care workers. Nursing Research

Research about prevention of lead poisoning in children and risks of various common metal poisoning in children helps to identify the need of educational programs in common population .This will increase thirst for the evidence based practice and effective utilization research approaches in health promotion. Recommendation 1. The study can be replicated as a longitudinal study with follow up. 2. Comparative study can be conducted between the different populations. 3. Comparative study can be conducted between different types of educational programs 4. The study can be conducted as true experimental studies. 5. A similar study can be conducted among the nursing students. 6. A similar study can be conducted among the poisoning various common metals in children. References: Krishnamurti, C. R. and Vishwanathan, Lead in the Indian environment and its human health implications, New Delhi, 1991. vol 4 page no.212-221 The National Referral Center for Lead Poisoning Prevention in India (NRCLPI) April 2002www.google.com Tripathi, R. M., Raghunath, R. and Krishnamoorthy, T. M., Dietary intake of heavy metals in Bombay city, India. Sci. Tot. Environ. 1997, 2008, 149–159


217

MARITAL QUALITY AND FAMILY TYPOLOGY: EFFECTS ON PAKISTANI ADOLESCENT'S MENTAL

HEALTH

Sumaira Rashid, Assistant Prof. Head of the Deptt in Applied Psychology Deptt Kinnaird College for Women,

Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract The present study investigated the influence of quality of marital life and family patterns with adolescents mental health status. The data for the present study was comprised of (n=100) Adolescent and (n = 100) parental couples. The participants belonged to different socioeconomic status with the age range 17 to 19 years. The data was collected from Forman Christian college university, Beaconhouse National University, Hajvery University and university of South Asia through purposive sampling technique. Mental health of adolescents was measured by the mental health inventory and parental marital satisfaction was assessed by Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale along with Demographic form stating name, age, gender, educational level. Independent t test was employed to analyze results. The findings of the present study showed that there is a significant relationship between parental Marital Satisfaction and Mental health of adolescent. The results also showed that there is a significant difference in mental health of adolescents among joint and nucleus families. Moreover, it was concluded that parental marital satisfaction is better in joint family as compare to nucleus family system.

Keywords: Family typology, marital satisfaction, marital quality Introduction

The focus of present study was aimed to find out the relationship between parental marital satisfaction, family structure and adolescents’ mental health status. Satisfaction is the person’s state whose inclination has accomplished their aims; it is a condition of a people who achieve their needs. Marital satisfaction is an individual’s personal impression of explicit mechanism within their marital relationship. According to Bifulco et al.(2004) marital satisfaction is a universal evaluation which is the expression of individual’s marital pleasure and gratification. Marriage refers to union of a man and a woman which is legally approved by society that represents the sign of being adult. It symbolizes the institution of new home and foundation of new family. Marriage is also a tradition to which involves love, friendship, emotional maturity. According to evolutionary viewpoint, marital satisfaction is a mental state that scrutinizes the costs and benefits of a marriage to a couple. Marital satisfaction research has resulted in the identification of a huge number of factors that contribute to a satisfactory marital union. The researches on the marital satisfaction have shown that there is large quantity of aspects that leads a marital relation to satisfaction. The features of marital satisfaction involves sensations of love, trust, admiration by the partner, respect and faithfulness by the partner, social support, dedication, equality of the tasks, gender roles and sexual relations . The family structure refers to type of family which includes nucleus and joint family system. The nuclear family system comprise of a husband, wife, father or mother and at least a single child. The nuclear family can be of any size only if the parents and children are present and the family can support itself. On the other hand joint family refers to the family system in which parents and children live with other group of grandparents, uncles,


218

aunts, nephews and nieces .Christine (2001). Adolescence is a phase when a child shifts from his early years to teen age. Being adolescent brings a lot of physical, emotional and psychological changes in the individual, also there are a lot of demands and pressure that an individual face from the society and family. Mental health in adolescents can be explained as the ability to attain and sustain the most favorable work that is related with the psychological and social function. Adolescents who have better mental health help them to accomplish their milestones in their adolescence period. Moreover they are more likely to perform constructively in every aspect of their life in order to contribute in the society. Baumrind (1991). The most common mental health problems in adolescents are anxiety disorders, depression, eating disorders as well as other risk behaviors including those that relate to sexual behavior, substance abuse, and delinquent behaviors. According to Baumrind, (1975). Who is founder of developmental psychology described adolescence stage as a period of emotional and behavioral disturbance before going and maintaining stable equilibrium in adulthood age. Adolescent stage is often described as increase high risk taking behaviors such as using illegal drugs, substance misuse, careless driving, delinquency, eating disorders, unprotected sexual activities, teenage pregnancy and suicidal behaviors. These behaviors are known as risky behaviors as they are threatening to adolescent’s physical and mental health Williams, Conger &, Blozis, (2007). During the previous years there are numerous researches which demonstrate that parental marital satisfaction and type of family has a significant effect on the personality and adjustment on their children Wang & Crane (2001). Mental health is a state and a functioning level which socially adequate and individually gratified. A person who is mentally healthy is well adjusted to societal norms, accepts realism ad remains optimistic in life even when he gets along with challenges and stresses of life. Currently, the research is progressively focusing on the mental health of adolescents that how to facilitate young people whose surroundings are not enough favorable to avoid hazards. In conclusion the adolescent children should have a chance to grow and develop healthy both physically and mentally in order to support themselves, their families and contribution to the society. But in order to accomplish these goals, they must be stopped from participating in illegal and negative activities so that externalize and internalize problems can be minimized. The home environment in which adolescent children grow can negatively influence them in numerous of ways. The parental marital satisfaction and involvement with adolescent children makes the home environment comfortable which reduces the probability to engage in risky behaviors. Literature Review

Sigelman, & Rider (2003). Conducted a study on the effect of parents’ marital satisfaction, marital life period and type of family on the mental health of their children. The sample was comprise of 360 school going children who were students of 8th, 9th and 10th classes. Marital satisfaction of the parents was assessed through the marital satisfaction scale developed by developed by Shaw, Winslow & Flanagan. (1999. Mental health inventory was used to examine the mental health of the children. It was concluded from the study that marital satisfaction of the parents has a significant affect the mental health of their children. It was also discovered that children living in joint and nucleus families belonging to parents with high marital satisfaction had better mental health as compare to the children belonging to parents who had low marital satisfaction. Seifert, & Hoffnung, (2000). ) conducted a study on the parental marital satisfaction, stability of their marriage and depression in children. The total sample of 120 children with their parents was selected. Marital adjustment test was used to examine the marital satisfaction, stability of marriage was evaluated by using marital status inventory, and childhood depression in children was assessed by using inventory of depression for children. The results of the study indicated that children of fathers who were dissatisfied with their marriages had the depressive symptoms. Moreover it was demonstrated that those children had depressive symptoms whose fathers had an unstable marital


219

relationship. The results also showed that the childhood depression was not significantly related to their mother’s marital dissatisfaction with marriage. Papalia, Olds & Feldman (2004).conducted a study to investigate the gender difference in the mental health of adolescents. The total sample was comprised of 120 students who were taken from urban and rural areas. The students were randomly selected from ten different secondary schools from both urban and rural areas. Mental health inventory was used to evaluate the mental health status of adolescents. It was concluded from the study that there is significant gender difference in adolescent’s mental health status. Moreover it was revealed from the study that adolescents who had better mental health were more emotionally stable and much better adjusted as compare to the adolescents with poor mental health were insecure, fearful, emotionally unstable, and maladjusted. Rationale of the Study

Previous researches have shown that perception of marriage and marital satisfaction has changed with time. Marital satisfaction is considered to be essential ingredient in the maintenance of a marriage as well as it enhances the happiness of the couple. Marital satisfaction of parents also makes the home environment healthy which influences the mental health of their children. Today the adolescent’s mental health is a major concern because adolescents who have high-quality of mental health will also improve their physical health. Adolescents who have good mental health may reveal more optimistic and constructive behaviors. Moreover the adolescent mental health issues are important because it may cause a serious distress and pain for family and to society. There is large number of researches that have been held on the marital satisfaction and on adolescents’ mental health status. But yet the researcher believes that the convictions of results on which conclusions have achieved from the worldwide researches are not valid in the Pakistani society and should be explored in detail in order to generalize the results on the Pakistani population. Therefore this study was conducted in order to find out the relationship between parental marital satisfaction, family structure and mental health of adolescents. Apart from this reason; this study is carried out to know that whether they are gender difference in mental health of adolescents. Objectives

To examine the relationship between parental marital satisfaction and mental health of adolescents. To find out the impact of family structure on mental health of adolescents. To identify the gender difference in mental health of adolescents. To investigate the impact of family structure on parental marital satisfaction. Hypotheses H1: Parental marital satisfaction and mental health of adolescents is significantly related. H1: The mental health of adolescents is different among nucleus and joint family. H1: There is a gender difference in mental health of adolescents. H1: The parental marital satisfaction is different among joint and nucleus family. Methodology

The present study is aimed to investigate the relationship of parental marital satisfaction, family structure and adolescents’ mental health status.


220

Research Design The correlation research design was used in the current study, as a relationship

between parental marital satisfaction, family structure and adolescent mental health status was investigated. Sample

In the present study the sample was collected through purposive sampling technique. Participants in the current study were adolescents with age range of 17-19 years. The total sample was comprised of three hundred subjects (N=300) out of which one hundred (n=100) was adolescents and one hundred (n=100) was parental couples. The data was selected from private universities. There are 20 universities present in Lahore which are recognized by Higher Education Commission. Four universities were randomly selected for the purpose of 20 percent of data collection. From each university 25 students of both genders was selected. The data was collected from students of Forman Christian College University, Beaconhouse National University, Hajvery University and University of South Asia. Results Hypothesis 1 There is a significant relationship between parental marital satisfaction and mental health of adolescents

Table 4.1 Pearson Product Correlation of mother marital satisfaction, father marital satisfaction and mental health of adolescents

N MMSS FMSS Mental health Mental health 100 .912(**) .913 (**) 1 MMSS 100 1 .993 (**) .912(**) FMSS 100 .993(**) 1 .913(**)

Note: **p < 0.01

The table 4.1 shows that is a high correlation between mother marital satisfaction and mental health of adolescents .912(**) which is significant on the 0.01 level. Similarly there is a high correlation between father marital satisfaction and mental health of adolescents .913(**) which is significant on P-value 0.01 level which indicates that there is a significant relationship between parental marital satisfaction and adolescents’ mental health, thus the hypothesis is accepted.

Hypothesis 2 The mental health of adolescents is different among nucleus and joint family.

Table 4.2: Descriptive Statistical analysis and independent t-test Family Structure N Mean Std. Deviation df t p Nucleus 50 114.24 66.951 98 -5.339 Mental Health .000 Joint 50 175.30 45.368 98 -5.339

Note: *p <0.05

The table 4.2 indicates that scores are significantly higher for mental health of adolescents in joint families (M = 175.30, SD = 45.368) than in nuclear families (M =114.24, SD = 66.951); t (98) = -5.339 and the value of p is .000 which indicates that there is a significant difference in the mental health of adolescents among joint and nucleus families, thus the hypothesis is accepted.

Hypothesis 3 There is a gender difference in mental health of adolescents.


221

Table 4.3:Descriptive Statistical analysis and independent t-test Gender difference N Mean Std. Deviation df t p Male 50 162.86 64.511 98 2.901 Mental Health .005 Female 50 126.68 60.112 98 2.901

Note: *p <0.05

The table 4.3 indicates that the scores are significantly higher for mental health of adolescent boys (M = 162.86, SD = 64.511) than adolescent girls (M = 126.68, SD = 60.112); t(98) = 2.901 and the value of p is .005 which indicates that there was a significant difference in mental health of both genders, thus the hypothesis is accepted.

Hypothesis 4 The parental marital satisfaction is different among joint and nucleus family.

Table 4.4: Descriptive Statistical analysis and independent t-test Family Structure N Mean Std. Deviation df t p Nucleus 50 13.22 7.186 98 -5.165 FMSS Joint 50 19.32 4.254 .000 Nucleus 50 12.92 7.401 98 -5.289 MMSS Joint 50 19.24 4.079

Note: *p < 0.05

The table 4.4 indicates that there is a significant difference of father marital satisfaction in joint family (M =19.32, SD =4.254) than nucleus family (M =13.22, SD = 7.186), t (80) = -5.165 p = .000. Similarly the marital satisfaction of mothers is significantly higher in joint family (M =19.24, SD =4.079) than nucleus family (M =12.92, SD =7.401), t (76) = -5.289 and the value of p is .000 which indicates that there is a significant difference of parental marital satisfaction among joint and nucleus families, thus the hypothesis is accepted. Discussions

The results of the current study indicated that there is a significant correlation of parental marital satisfaction with mental health of adolescents. In the present study statistically significant relationship found between parental marital satisfaction and adolescent mental health status of adolescents which is supported by the previous researches. Mudasir (2013 has concluded that children exhibit more physical and mental health problems when the parents have persistent and unsettled marital disagreements. When parents have a marital conflict, it creates internal stress within their children which makes them uncomfortable and as a result they develop mental health problems. In case of adolescents, they get more affected by their parental marital conflicts and dissatisfaction as they are more cognitively developed and mature emotionally than small children (Kail, & Cavanaugh (2000). The result of the present study indicated that there is a significant difference in mental health of adolescents among nucleus and joint family. These results of the present study were supported by the research that was conducted by Jenkins, Simpson, Dunn, Rasbash, & Connor (2005). who conducted a study to assess the impact of joint and nucleus on the behavior of children. It was concluded from the study that children who were living in joint families had less behavioral problems and they showed better behaviors as compare to the children who were living in nucleus families. It has been shown by the previous research that girls experience great level of stress as compare to boys, and this level of gender difference in mental health remain present through all stages of life period, including adolescence, young and middle adulthood and late adulthood Gill & Sharma. (2003). The Feldman (2003) result of the present study


222

indicated that there is a significant difference of Parental Marital Satisfaction in joint and nucleus families. The Marital Satisfaction of parents is better in joint families than in nucleus families. The results of the present research are supported by the study conducted by Dacey &Travers (2004) who found that marital satisfaction is high in joint families as compare to nucleus families. It has been commonly observed that marriage is not a configuration of a single relationship, though it is a joining of two families. Family structure has a great influence on the marital relationship of a couple. When a woman enters a new family, new home and meets new people, she has to make adjustments with a number of things. In Pakistani society, the in-laws play a crucial role in enhancing the marital satisfaction of the couple. If the in-laws are kind they may help the couple to understand each other’s temperament and if the woman is working, the household work can be divided into family members. Conclusion

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship of parental marital satisfaction, family structure, and adolescents’ mental health status. The results revealed that there is significant relationship between parental marital satisfaction and adolescents’ mental health status. The results of the present study indicated that children living in joint family system posses better mental health as compare to children living in nucleus family system. Moreover, the results showed that there are gender differences in mental health of adolescents as the adolescent boys showed better mental health as compare to adolescent girls. Furthermore, it was concluded from the study that parental marital satisfaction is better in joint family system than nucleus family system. Therefore the results of the current study are a clear illustration that parental marital satisfaction significantly affects the mental health of their children. In conclusion, the findings of present study contributes to the growing literature that marital conflict of parents can have a negative influence on the mental health of their adolescent children. Recommendations

As the sample size was very small and the results cannot be generalized on overall population. So it is suggested that a large sample size should be use for future researches. Also the demographic variables such as birth order, educational attainment, socioeconomic status, and educational level of could also be taken into account to explore a comprehensive picture of factors that enhance mental health of adolescents.

For future studies the parents and children should get interviewed individually to identify that whether marital dissatisfaction of parents negatively affects the mental health of children.

Parents are much busier in their careers and do not get enough time for their children. So they should spend more time with their children in order to identify and solve their problems.

There must be a psychologist or school counselor present in every educational institute to secure the mental health of every child by educating teachers, counseling students and their parents. References: Baumrind, D. (1975). Early socialization and the discipline controversy. New Jersey : General Learning Press. Baumrind D. 1991. The influence of parenting style on adolescent competence and substance use. Journal of Early Adolescence 11(1): 56-95.


223

Bifulco et al.(2004). Maternal Attachment style and Depression Associated with child birth: preliminary results from a European and US cross-cultural study. British Journal of Psychiatry. 184. 31-37. Christine, R.H., Mia, A.P., Maureen M.B.(2001). Mental health Among African American Adolescent Mothers: Predictors of Positive Parenting in Early Infancy Dacey, J.S., Travers,J.F., (2004). Human development across the life span. New York: Pearson Education, 389–391 Feldman, R.S. (2003). Development across the life span (3rd Ed.). USA: Prenyice Hall, 390–397. Gill, I.K., Sharma. D., Verma, S., (2003). Adolescents in Single parents Families. Jounal of Family Therapy. 49 (1), 10-20. Jenkins, J., Simpson, A., Dunn, J., Rasbash, J., Connor, T.G., (2005). Mutual influence of marital conflict and children’s behavior problems: Shared and non shared family risks. Journal of Child development. 76, (1) 24–39. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org Kail, R. V., Cavanaugh, J. C., (2000). Human Development: A Life Span View (2nd Ed.). Australia: Wadsworth. 305–319. Mudasir, B., (2013). Gender and locality difference: A study of Adolescents mental health. Journal of Education Research and Behavioral Sciences. 2, (5) 068–075. Papalia, D.E., Olds, S.W., Feldman, R.D. (2004). Human Development (9th Ed.). New York: Mc Graw Hill, 385–390. Papalia, D. E., Olds, S. W., Feldman, R. D. (2007). Human Development (10th Ed.) Boston: McGraw Hill, 495–500. Seifert, K. L., Hoffnung, R. J., (2000). Life Span Development (2nd Ed). USA: Houghton Muffin, 474–480. Shaw, D.S.,Winslow, M.B., Flanagan. C., (1999). A prospective study of the marital status and family relations on young children’s Adjustment among African American and European American Families. Journal of child development. 70, (3) 742–745. Sigelman, C. K., Rider, E.A., (2003).Life-Span Human development (4th Ed.).USA: WadsWorth, 413–418. Wang, L., Crane, D. R., (2001). The Relationship between Marital Satisfaction, Marital Stability, Nuclear Family Triangulation, and Childhood Depression. The American Journal FamilyTherapy. 29, (1) 337–347. Williams, H. T., Conger, K.J., Blozis, S. A., (2007).The development of interpersonal aggression during Adolescence: The importance of Parents, siblings and family economics. Journal of child development. 28,(5) 1526–1542. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org Bifulco et al.(2004). Maternal Attachment style and Depression Associated with child birth: preliminary results from a European and US cross-cultural study. British Journal of Psychiatry. 184. 31-37.


224

EUTHANASIA WITH REGARDS IN EGYPT SHARIA

Zahra Hamedani Department of Humanities, Gonbad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Khorasan, Iran

Seyed Milad Alizadeh Javaheri PhD student, Department of Humanities, Tehran Markaz Branch,

Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract Many advocates of euthanasia consider the criminal law to be an inappropriate medium to adjudicate the profound ethical and humanitarian dilemmas associated with end of life decisions. This work examines the legal response to euthanasia and end of life decisions and considers whether legal reform is an appropriate response to calls for euthanasia to be more readily available as a mechanism for providing death with dignity. Through an analysis of consent to treatment and medical decision making, euthanasia is carefully located within its legal, medical, and social contexts. This book focuses on the impact of euthanasia on the dignity of both the recipient and the practitioner while emphasizing the legal, professional, and ethical implications of euthanasia and its significance for the exercise of clinical discretion.

Keywords: Euthanasia, Egypt, Iran, Sharia Introduction Apart from scholars and authorities, most of people in these countries ask such questions from Islamic scholars and rely on the answers with jurisprudential nature. Islamic jurisprudence has four main sources: The first and the most important one is Holy Koran which is the primary source of Islamic law (although it is not only a book of law); the second source of Islamic law is Sunnah which is what the prophet (and Shiite Imams in the Shiite jurisprudence)said, did or agreed to. The third source is Ijma’ which is consensus of Islamic scholars, and the fourth one is Aghl that means reason. In this article we are going to discuss this topic from Islamic perspective through reviewing Islamic primary texts and contemporary Muslim scholar’s point of views. Islamic jurisprudence, based on a convincing interpretation of the holy Koran, does not recognize a person’s right to die voluntarily. The Islamic arguments against euthanasia can be summarized in two main reasons: 1-Life is sacred and euthanasia and suicide are not included among the reasons allowed for killing in Islam. Allah decides how long each of us will live and two verses support this reason. According to Islamic teachings, life is a divine trust and cannot be terminated by any form of active or passive voluntary intervention. Of course, we have to exclude the situation in which the life support equipments are switched off from a brain-dead person, aimed to use them for saving the life of a live person. As a conclusion we can say that the Islamic position is that life belongs to Allah. It is He who gives and takes away life. No human can give or take it. Muslims are against euthanasia. They believe that all human life is sacred because it is given by Allah, and that Allah chooses how long each person will live. Human beings should not interfere in this. There are two instances, however, that could be interpreted as passive assistance in allowing a terminally ill patient to die and would be permissible by Islamic law: Administering analgesic agents that might shorten the patient’s life, with the purpose of relieving the physical pain or mental distress, and withdrawing a futile treatment in the basis of informed consent (of the


225

immediate family members who act on the professional advice of the physicians in charge of the case) allowing death to take its natural course. Discussion If a patient is medically presumed dead through what is known as brain death, switching off the life support may be permissible, with due consultation and care, especially when it is clear that the life support machine becomes of no use for the already-dead patient or in the case of organ and tissue donation for saving another persons’ life which is a routine practice in Iran and some other Muslim countries. Regarding end-stage dementia patients, they should be considered as completely human being and according to Islamic teachings; their life is scared and should not be taken. Many predominantly Muslim countries have not adopted hudud penalties in their criminal justice systems. Ali Mazrui stated that "most Muslim countries do not use traditional classical Islamic punishments". The harshest penalties are enforced with varying levels of consistency. The use of flogging is more common compared to punishments like amputations. Classical sharia systems formally equate national law with sharia, and to a great extent national law are based on sharia; religious scholars (ulama) play a decisive role in the application and interpretation of sharia as national law, while the legal changes allowed to the ruler are limited. Only a small minority of Muslim nations institutes this system. These countries for the most part lack constitutions or codification of laws outside of the Sunnah and Hadith. The ulama are the source of ijma (scholarly consensus) and therefore determinants of the law of the land. Even the ruling parties do not have the power to institute large-scale changes because of the power of the ulama. Egypt Sharia courts and qadis are run and licensed by the Ministry of Justice. The personal status law that regulates matters such as marriage, divorce and child custody is governed by Sharia. In a family court, a woman’s testimony is worth half of a man’s testimony. Sharia in the world by Country Where Sharia applies in personal status issues (such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, and child custody), but otherwise have a secular legal system. Countries where Sharia applies in full, covering personal status issues as well as criminal proceedings. Algeria: In criminal cases the testimony of two women are equal to the testimony of one male witness. Benin: It has a civil law system with influences from customary law.[9[ Burkina Faso: It has a civil law system. Cameroon: It has a mixed legal system of English common law, French civil law, and customary law. Chad: The government is declared to be secular in the constitution. Comoros: The legal system is based on Sharia. Cote d'Ivoire: It has a civil law system. Djibouti: The Family Code is mainly derived from Islamic law and regulates personal status matters such as marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance. Egypt Sharia: courts and qadis are run and licensed by the Ministry of Justice. The personal status law that regulates matters such as marriage, divorce and child custody is governed by Sharia. In a family court, a woman’s testimony is worth half of a man’s testimony. Eritrea Sharia: courts entertain cases dealing with marriage, inheritance and family of Muslims. Ethiopia: Sharia courts have jurisdiction on cases regaring marriage, divorce, maintenance, guardianship of minors (only if both parties are Muslims). Also included are


226

cases concerning waqfs, gifts, succession, or wills, provided that donor is a Muslim or deceased was a Muslim at time of death. Gabon: It has a mixed legal system of French civil law and customary law. Ghana: Islamic law is applied by customary or traditional courts as part of customary law. Guinea-Bissau: It has a mixed legal system of civil law and customary law. Guinea: It has a civil law system. Kenya: Islamic law is applied by Kadhis' Courts where "all the parties profess the Muslim religion". Under article 170, section 5 of the constitution, the jurisdiction of Kadhis’ court is limited to matters relating to "personal status, marriage, divorce or inheritance in proceedings in which all the parties profess the Muslim religion and submit to the jurisdiction of the Kadhi’s courts".

Libya: Qaddafi merged civil and sharia courts in 1973. Civil courts now employ sharia judges who sit in regular courts of appeal and specialise in sharia appellate cases. The personal status laws are derived from Islamic law.

Mali: It has a civil law system influenced by customary law. Mauritania: The Penal Code contains Sharia crimes such heresy, apostasy, atheism, refusal to pray, adultery and alcoholism. Punishments include lapidation, amputation and flagellation.

Morocco: In 1956, a Code of Personal Status (Mudawana) was issued, based on dominant Maliki doctrine. Sharia sections of regional courts also hear personal status cases on appeal. In matters of family law, a woman’s testimony is worth only half of that of a man. The Moudawana was the subject of a wide-ranging reform in 2004.

Niger: It has not adopted any elements of Islamic law. Senegal: The government is declared to be secular in the constitution. Sierra Leone: It has a common law system influenced by customary law. Somalia: Sharia was adopted in 2009. Religious law is traditionally only used to settle

domestic disputes, including issues of marriage and family. Traditional law usually takes precedence on criminal matters.

Sudan: The Criminal Act of 1991 prescribes punishments which include forty lashes for drinking alcohol, amputation of the right hand for theft of a certain value and stoning for adultery.

Tanzania: Islamic law is applicable to Muslims under the Judicature and Applications of Laws Act, empowering courts to apply Islamic law to matters of succession in communities that generally follow Islamic law in matters of personal status and inheritance. Unlike mainland Tanzania, Zanzibar retains Islamic courts.

Togo: It has a customary law system. Tunisia: The Law of Personal Status was inspired by unofficial draft codes of Maliki

and Hanafi family law, but it bans polygamy and extrajudicial divorce. Sharia courts were abolished in 1956.

Guyana : The country has a common law system. Suriname: The country has a civil law system. Afghanistan: Criminal law in Afghanistan continues to be governed in large part by

Islamic law. The Criminal Law of September 1976 codifies sharia, and retains punishments such as the stoning to death of adulterers. However virtually all courts, including the Supreme Court of Afghanistan, rely on Islamic law directly.

Azerbaijan: The government is declared to be secular in the constitution. Bahrain: Civil courts have jurisdiction over cases related to civil, commercial, and criminal matters, while Sharia courts are limited to personal status law issues only. A personal status law was codified in 2009 to regulate personal status matters. It applies only to Sunni


227

Muslims; there is no codified personal status law for Shiites. Before a Shari’a court a woman's testimony is worth half of that of a man.

Bangladesh: Marriage, divorce, alimony and property inheritance are regulated by Sharia for Muslims. The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 (XXVI of 1937) applies to Muslims in all matters relating to Family Affairs. Islamic family law is applied through the regular court system. There are no limitations on interfaith marriages.

Brunei Sharia: courts decide personal status cases or cases relating to religious offences. Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah declared in 2011 his wish to establish Islamic criminal law as soon as possible.

Gaza Strip: The Egyptian personal status law of 1954 is applied. The personal status law is based on Islamic law and regulates matters related to inheritance, marriage, and divorce and child custody. Shari’a courts hear cases related to personal status. The testimony of a woman is worth only half of that of a man in cases related to marriage, divorce and child custody. Exercising both spiritual and temporal leadership Shia as the official religion of Islamic Republic of Iran has had many Fatwas (religious opinions about whether an action is permissible or not) from its scholars regarding bioethical issues such as organ transplantation, abortion and genetic research, some of which have been implemented into law by the parliament of Iran in recent years. But the subject of Euthanasia is a clear matter that all the branches of Islam have had a unified opinion on. In an Islamic setting the issue of euthanasia is dismissed as religiously unlawful, therefore the specifications for taking a life are clear. From Islamic perspective sanctity of life is of supreme value, so killing a person out of mercy and in order to relieve him of pain and suffering is not only sinful, but a threat to the moral fabric of society. Islam states that to kill one's self or to get someone else to do it, is actually denying God, and of course to deny God's rights over our lives is to deny him altogether and this is the clear example of blasphemy. Islam teaches its followers that a person in any profession needs to be honest, show sound performance and be God conscious. This rule for the physicians is of course of more value because they touch on the human soul as well as his body. A physician is expected to maintain a typical, ethical performance at all costs. In this sense, controversial issues such as euthanasia have drawn the medical profession into the fields of ethics, philosophy, and religion. Life and death from Islamic perspective Islamic jurisprudence has four main sources, and all the Muslims rely on these sources to get answers for their questions. The primary source of Islamic law is the holy Quran. The second source is the Sunnah which is the teachings, sayings and the life style of the Prophet of Islam. The third source is Ijma', (meaning consensus or acceptance of a matter by a specified group of people), and the last one is Aghl or reason. Based on these sources Islamic laws and regulations are established and governed. Conclusion To answer the question of Euthanasia, we will only rely on the primary source which is the holy Quran. After creating Adam, the Almighty congratulates himself for creating the best of the creations: “so blessed be Allah, the best of the creators ". Allah gave this creation the best position: “certainly we created man in the best make ". But this great creation is also doomed, and in the end death awaits him: "then after that you will most surely die" and " every soul shall taste of death, and you shall only be paid fully your reward on the resurrection day; then whoever is removed far away from the fire and is made to enter the garden he indeed has attained the object; and the life of this world is nothing but a provision of vanities ". Islam emphasizes that man has not created himself; therefore he has no right


228

over his body. Our lives are not our lives for us to do with as we see fit, this life was entrusted to us for care, nurture and safekeep: "surely Allah's is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth; he brings to life and causes to die; and there is not for you besides allah any guardian or helper. Imam Ali, the first Imam of the shia muslims, says that God is the owner and giver of life and his rights in giving and in taking are not to be violated: " He who gives life is he who is the owner of life and he who is taker of live". In Islam the sanctuary of human life is a basic value as decreed by God. The holy Quarn clearly points out this issue in the following verses: " and do not kill any one whom Allah has forbidden, except for a just cause, and whoever is slain unjustly, we have indeed given to his heir authority, so let him not exceed the just limits in slaying; surely he is aided ", " o you who believe! do not devour your property among yourselves falsely, except that it be trading by your mutual consent; and do not kill your people; surely Allah is merciful to you ". References: Morris, K.N.; Wolf, J.L. & Gies, D.L. (2011). Trends in intake and outcome data for animal shelters in Colorado, 2000 to 2007. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, Vol.238, No.3, (February, 2009) pp. 329-336. ISSN 0003-1488 Nogueira, B.L.J.; Adams, C.L.; Bonnet, B.N.; Shaw, J.R. & Ribble, C.S. (2010). Use of the measure of patient-centered communication to analyze euthanasia discussion in companion animals practice. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. Vol,237, No.11, (December, 2010) pp. 1275-1287. ISSN 0003-1488 "Law No. (11) of 2004 Penal Code". Qatar Financial Information Unit. "Prison Information Pack - Saudi Arabia". Ukinsaudiarabia.fco.gov.uk. 2012-04-09. Retrieved 2013-02-18.


229

SUITABILITY MODEL BASED ON GIS AND MCDA FOR SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF SETTLEMENTS IN

DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHIC ENVIRONMENTS

Nashwan Shukri Abdullah, PhD, Urban Geography University of Duhok, Faculty of Humanities, Dept Geography, Iraq

Abstract The spatial structure of settlements in Duhok Governorate in Iraq has changed over the

last two decades, far from the comprehensive spatial planning. The study was carried out in two different geographical environments, one is in plain area (Semil), and the other is in mountainous area (Amidy). This study aims to detect the spatial distribution patterns of settlements in each district, and to develop a spatial suitability model for settling in each part of the study area. This model helps researchers, governmental sectors, and decision makers to develop a general framework of rural development. Inter-disciplinary methodology has been used, based on combination between MCDA (Mulit-Criteria Decision Analysis) and GIS capabilities. The process was conducted based on eleven criteria, which were prepared using ENVI, ArcGIS10.1, and Global Mapper15. The AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) method were used to build weights for criteria, while WLC (weighted linear combination) approach was implemented to formulate suitability models in each district. The study demonstrates a slight discrepancy between the spatial pattern of existing suitability potential and the actual distribution of settlements. According to the model, about 53.7% of study area is either suitable or highly suitable to build new settlements, and the remaining area 46.3% rated as either moderately, poorly suitable or unsuitable. However, the study found clearly different between Amidy and Semil. The model used in this study is applicable elsewhere in Iraqi Kurdistan Region.

Keywords: Suitability, spatial, settlements, GIS, models Introduction

The spatial structure of the settlements has changed rapidly in Duhok Governorate, in Iraq, over the last two decades, precisely, after war in Iraq in 2003.. The most important consequence is the changes in the structure of settlements in terms of the spatial distribution (dispersion or cluster). In addition, the structure of the spatial distribution of Settlements (rural and urban) has taken a different shape, comparing to last two decades (before 2003).

Accordingly, the main problem of this research is the absence of the comprehensive planning overview by the institutions working on planning, and the Incompatibility between the distribution of settlements and the elements of the natural environment.

Before embarking on analyzing the study's phenomena, it is important to describe and highlight some terms that would respond in the study, the most prominent term is GIS- and Multi-Criteria Decision analysis (MCDA). MCDA is a tool includes the use of GIS to help decision making using multiple data sources (lioyd, 2010). There is great synergy between these two fields of knowledge, they benefit from each other (Malczewski, 2006). In spite of the multiplicity of views about MCDA (Henig & Buchanan, 1996; Silva & Blanco, 2003; Lloyd, 2010) but there is a consensus on main concept. Stewart explained that “the aim of any (MCDA) technique is to provide help and guidance to the decision maker in discovering his or her most desired solution to the problem"( Henig & Buchanan,1996,p.3). Malczewaki


230

(2006) concluded from the survey that the (MCDA) most often used for tackling land suitability problems, in comparing with the other types of problems. The bulk of the research undertaken in the scope of site suitability analysis, are used GIS based multi-criteria approaches, in field researches of human and natural aspect (Vahidnia, Alesheikh, & mohammadi, 2009; Wang, Guoxue , & Chen , 2009; Zamorano, Molero, Hurtado, Grindlay, & Ramos,2008;Demesouka,Vavatsikos,&Anagnostopoulos, 2013; Mohajeri & Amin,2010 ;Koc-San,San, Bakis, Helvaci, & Eker, 2013; Effat & Hegazy, 2012; Sharifi etal,2009;Jeong,Moruno,&Blanco,2013;Jeong,Moruno, & Blanco, 2012;Hossain, Chowdhury,Das,& Rahaman, 2007; Al-Mumaiz, 2012; Akıncı, Ozalp, & Turgut, 2013; Sener , Sener, Nas, & Karaguzel ,2010 , Anane, Bouziri, Limam, & Jellali, 2012 ).

The other terms are Multicriteria Evaluation (MCE) and Suitability Models (SM), (MCE) could be understood as a group of analytical methods that fall within the field of multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) , in this approach relative importance of different criteria must be taken in to account ,(lioyd, 2010 ). This means that each variable has its weight. These techniques are used mainly as spatial decision support tools when addressing land suitability/facilities location and evaluation/assessment problems (Kemp, 2008). While suitability analysis in its broadest sense involves the application of criteria to the land use, to assess where land is most and least suitable for development (Heacock & Hollander, 2011).The result of this process is the evaluation of the suitability for the entire study area based on a suitability index, which is useful for making a preliminary ranking of the most suitable lands (Malczewski, 2004, Malczewski, 2006).

The main objective of the study is to develop a general framework for regional and spatial planning in study area by creating suitable model with the aid of GIS, through the compatibility between the elements of both natural and human environments, to help decision makers to develop a platform to achieve sustainable spatial development. Materials and Methodology Study area

The study was carried out on the area which occupies extremely north parts of Iraq, north and northwest parts of Iraqi Kurdistan Region , within Duhok governorate (Fig. 1) ,first region (Amidy district ) lies between latitudes which are (37°,21ʹ,35ʺ N) and (36°,25ʹ,11ʺ N) ,and longitudes (43°,04ʹ,10ʺ E) (44°,06ʹ,12ʺ E), this district is mainly composed of complex reliefs, covers an area of (2723 km2)or (25.2%) of total area of governorate, and the population is (94703) which is compose of about (8%) of total population. While second region (Semil district) lies between latitudes (37° , 05ʹ , 48ʺ N)(36° , 25ʹ ,11ʺ N) and longitudes (42°,22ʹ,43ʺ E)(43°,08ʹ,47ʺ E) The area is plain with a simple combination of reliefs, especially in the northern parts, and occupies an area of (1270 km2)or (11.7%) of total governorate's area ,and the population is (154074) which approximate (13.1%) of total population of the governorate .The entire study area occupies of about (3993 km2) or nearly (37%) of governorate’s area, and population (248777) which constitute nearly (21%) of total population of governorate (Table. 1).

Table. 1 Some geographic characteristics of study area (Compared to Governorate in percentage) No of cities Area/km2 Standards

Destricts No % No % 9 23.1 2723 25.2 Amidy 8 20.5 1270 11.7 Semil

17 34.6 3993 36.9 Study area 39 10808 Duhok Governorat

Proportional distribution of villages No of villages Standards

Destricts Deserted Inhabited No % No % No %

249 65.2 133 34.8 382 26.7 Amidy


231

22 15.6 119 84.4 141 9.9 Semil 271 51.8 252 48.2 523 36.6 Study area

1428 Duhok Governorat Population Structure

Standards Destricts Rural Population Urban Population Total Population

No % No % No % 30289 8.8 64414 7.7 94703 8 Amidy 40602 11.7 113472 13.6 154074 13.1 Semil

70891 20.5 177886 21.3 248777 21.1 Study area 345530 832184 1177714 DuhokGovernorate

Materials

There is a variety data utilized in this study, which is assembled from a variety of sources. Firstly the essential population data were obtained from the last population estimates in 2009 which are made by the ministry of planning , Iraqi Kurdistan Region Government , cooperatively with the ministry of planning in Iraqi Government .Other data like administrative basic map, roads map and locations of villages and towns, all were obtained from the information centre in the governorate office, while the digital elevation model (DEM)and satellite image(Landsat7) of study area was downloaded from this website (Global land cover facility ):ftp://ftp.glcf.umd.edu/glcf/Landsat/.Whereas the other data utilized, has been derived from previous data.

Fig. 1. Geographical location of the study area

Methodology Methodology overview

The methodology involved the following precise steps (Fig. 2): 1. Selecting main criteria and sub-criteria to be used in the analysis process. 2. Collecting data from different sources, converted to layers in form to be

manipulated in GIS environment, via aids of ArcGIS10.1, ENVI 5, Global Mapper 15.

3. Determinate the spatial distribution patterns of settlements by using nearest neighbour analysis (NNA).

4. Sub-parameters scored were assigned within the range of 0–10, in this scoring, the diversity of level of suitability, was taken into consideration. While high points


232

were given to the sub-parameters that more suitable, lower points were given to those that less suitable.

5. Determine prioritization of sub-criteria, based on the AHP and pair-wise comparison matrix, to obtain relative weights of each criterion.

6. Generating suitability models through applying the weighted linear combination (WLC) in a GIS environment.

7. Reclassification models according to increasing suitability levels to five main classes, highly suitable, suitable, moderately suitable, poorly suitable, and unsuitable.

8. Finally evaluating the results obtained from the previous steps.

Fig. 2. Flowchart of methodology

Formulate Suitability Models

The study identifies two groups of criteria impact the suitability models of settling, physical and infrastructure criteria, which is in turn divided into sub-criteria, as shown in the Table. 2 and Fig. 3-4, namely: Land use type(LUT), topography (elevation, slope, and aspect), distance from water bodies (rivers(DR), lakes(DL), streams(DS)), distance from main road(DMR), distance from cities(DC), distance from villages (DV), Density of inhabited villages as a points(DIVP), density of rural population(DRP). Description of criteria Land use type (LUT)

An image of LANDSAT 7 acquired on 11 Jun 2006 was used to determine and classify the types of land use in study area. The sub-classes of land categories are classified to six classes, these classes are: Class 1,2, land covered by forest or utilized in diverse agriculture, it was considered with class 7 as a less convenient for establishing the settlements and utilize it in developing of the rural sector . Class 3, land moderately covered by vegetation or a mountainous valleys moderately covered in vegetation. Class 4, land partially covered by natural vegetation, which is grasses in general. Class 5, characterized either in slight vegetation or it is a rain-fed agriculture land, howsoever, it is unexploited in agriculture, but significantly arable and flat in general, so it is valid for human settling .Class 6, moderately

(AHP) Calculation the Relative Weights of each

WCL in GIS

Results

Consistency Ratio (CR)

Setting sub-parameters

and reclassify

Data layers

Selection of Main Criteria

and sub-

Semil Distract

Amidy Distract

Collection Data from different

Detection Spatial

Distribution pattern

Creating of Database

(ArcGIS10.1, ENVI 5, Global

Mapper 15)

Manipulatig Data in

GIS E i

Semil Layers

Amidy Layers


233

covered by vegetation, unexploited in agriculture processes, but affected by the human activities for being close to human settlements, or actually exploited by rural and urban settlements. Class 7, land with slight vegetation , susceptible for erosion processes, or it is rocky areas with complex topography , therefore this kind of lands are inappropriate for establishing settlements and utilizing in developing rural sector. Elevation

Elevation status was derived from the digital elevation model (DEM), in study area, the status of elevation factor considered as an important factor that constrains the human activities. The elevation types were divided to ten categories, areas with high altitude assigned as less suitable, and areas low altitude assigned more suitable for settling. Slope

Slope plays a crucial part in variation of the levels of land suitability for human habitation. Generally slope restricts all human activities spatially potential cultivation. Accordingly, the land suitability for human inhabitation decreases with increasing slope and increases with decreasing slope. The bulk of study area were very steep and rugged, especially in Amidy district. Relative grades were assigned according to degrees of steepness.

Table 2 Main criteria, sub-criteria used in formulation models and relative sub-parameter and scores Main Criteria Physical criteria

Topography Elevation (km) Slope (Degrees) Aspect Amidy Semil Amidy Semil Amidy Semil Sub-Parameters

Score

Sub-Parameters

Score Sub-Parameters

Score

Sub-Parameters

Score

Sub-Parameters


Score

0.5> 10 0.4> 9 2> 9 2> 10 Flat 9 Flat 9 0.5-0,7 9 0.4-0,5 8 2.1-4 9 2.1-4 9 S 9 S 9 0.7-0.9 8 0.51-0.6 8 4.1-8 8 4.1-8 8 SE 8 SE 8 0.9-1.1 7 0.61-0.7 6 8.1-12 7 8.1-12 7 SW 8 SW 8 1.1-1.3 6 0.71-0.8 3 12.1-16 6 12.1-16 6 E 6 E 6 1.3-1.5 5 0.81-0.9 2 16.1-20 4 16.1-20 4 W 5 W 5 1.5-1.7 4 0.91< 1 20.1-24 3 20.1-24 3 NE 3 NE 3 1.7-1.9 3 24.1-28 0 24.1-28 0 NW 2 NW 2 1.9-2.1 2 28.1-32 0 28.1-32 0 N 1 N 1 2.1< 1 32< 0 32< 0 Main Criteria Physical criteria

Distance from water bodies Lakes (km) Streams (km) Rivers (km) Amidy Semil Amidy Semil Amidy Semil Sub-Parameters

Score

Sub-Parameters


Score

Sub-Parameters

Score

Sub-Parameters


Score

- - 3> 9 1> 1 0.5> 1 1> 10 10> 9 - - 3.1-6 8 1-2 2 0.5-1 2 1-2 9 10.1-20 8 - - 6.1-9 7 2-3 3 1-1.5 4 2-3 8 20.1-30 7 - - 9.1-12 6 3-4 4 1.5-2 6 3-4 7 30.1-40 6 - - 12.1-15 5 4-5 5 2-2.5 8 4-5 6 40.1-50 5 - - 15.1-18 4 5-6 6 2.5-3 9 5-6 5 50.1< 4 - - 18.1-21 3 6-7 7 3-3.5 6 6-7 4 - - 21.1-24 2 7-8 8 3.5-4 3 7-8 3 - - 24.1< 1 8< 9 4-4.5 2 8-9 2 4.5< 1 9< 1 Main Physical criteria infrastructure and socio-economic factors


234

Criteria

Land use type(LUT) Density of Rural population(DRP) Density of inhabitant villages as a points(DIVP)

Amidy Semil Amidy Semil Amidy Semil Sub-Parameters

Score

Sub-Parameters


Score

Sub-Parameters

Score

Sub-Parameters


Score

Class 1-2 2 Class 1-2 2 20> 9 25> 9 0.05> 9 0.05> 9 Class 3 3 Class 3 3 21-40 8 25.1-50 8 0.05-0.1 8 0.05-0.1 8 Class 4 8 Class 4 5 41-60 7 50.1-75 7 0.1-0.15 7 0.1-0.15 7 Class5 9 Class5 9 61-80 5 75.1-100 6 0.15-0.2 5 0.15-0.2 6 Class6 6 Class6 7 81-100 3 101-125 4 0.2-0.25 3 0.2-0.25 5 Class7 0 Class7 4 110-120 2 151-200 3 0.25-0.3 2 0.25-0.3 4 130< 1 201< 1 0.3< 1 0.3-0.35 3 0.35< 1 Main Criteria infrastructure and socio-economic factors

Distance from villages(DV)(km) Distance from cities(DC)(km) Distance from main road(DMR)(km) Amidy Semil Amidy Semil Amidy Semil Sub-Parameters

Score

Sub-Parameters


Score

Sub-Parameters



Score

1> 9 0.7> 10 5> 6 3> 6 3> 10 2> 10 1-2 8 0.7-1.4 9 5.1 -10 7 3.5 -7 7 3-6 9 2-4 9 2-3 7 1.4-2.1 8 10.1-15 9 7.1-10.5 9 6-9 8 4-6 8 3-4 6 2.1-2.8 7 15.1-20 5 10.6-14 8 9-12 7 6-8 7 4-5 5 2.8-3.5 6 20.1-25 4 14.1-17.5 5 12-15 6 8-10 6 5-6 4 3.5-4.2 5 25.1-30 2 17.6-21 4 15-18 5 10-12 5 6-7 3 4-2.4.9 4 30.1-35 0 21.1-24.5 2 18-21 4 12< 4 7-8 2 4.9-5.6 3 35< 0 24.6-28 0 21-24 3 8< 1 5.6-6.3 2 28< 0 24-27 2 6.3< 1 27< 1

Aspect

As known that the southern and western aspects are more suitable for setting up human settlement, because they are more exposed to sunlight, and receive a large portion of solar radiation during the days of the year .Accordingly, the flat and southern aspects are considered as more suitable, followed by south east and south west aspects, while eastern and western aspects comes in third ranks, northern, north west, and north east aspects are less suitable. Depending on the digital elevation model of, the aspect map was generated. Distance from water bodies

In general term, proximity to lakes and permanent rivers mean that the settlements population can easily access to the potable fresh water. In addition to, preserve affordable permanent source of water for agricultural processes. On the other hand, it is more suitable for settlements to be far as possible from rugged wadies and dry streams. Subsequently, between 6-10 buffer zones has been drawn around lakes, streams and rivers, and relative suitability were assigned, buffers near to lakes and permanent rivers are more suitable, while buffers near to streams are less suitable. Distance from main road(DMR)

Settlements should not be located too far from the roads, but near to the main roads as much as possible, hence closeness to roads is preferable. The closeness map to the roads were obtained through 7-10 buffer zones, and its relative suitability of zones were assigned according to the degree of closeness to the roads.


235

Distance from cities(DC) As long as the cities and nearby area are more crowded and has a high population

density, it is better to set up new settlements, or re-develop the existing ones, a little away from urban area, to ensure the re-distribution of the population in better way, but within distance not impact the mutually supportive relationships between settlements and cities. Accordingly, the closeness map to the cities were generated through 8-9 buffer zones, and its relative suitability were assigned. Distance from villages(DV)

Sites of settlements has been selected in accordance with the long experience of human being in the exploitation of land surrounding it, Therefore the settlements and surrounding land is suitable for human settling compared with proportionally farthest areas. So 9-10 buffer zone has been drawn around settlements and relative suitability were assigned.

Fig. 3. Criteria for suitability model in Amidy district (except land use type and Aspect)

Fig. 4 Criteria for suitability model in Semil district (except land use type and Aspect)


236

Density of inhabited villages as a points(DIVP) Map of density villages were derived from the layer of points locations of villages

without taking into account the attributes of population of villages , because in this matter we only want to know the density of the existing (inhabited) villages, just as points, and so the villages deserted were excluded .The main objective of this criterion is to aid the designation vacant zones of villages, but valid for human habitation, and to insure the new settlements, or re-develop the existing ones, to be far from the inhabited ones .The density maps were generated using the tool of kernel density in spatial analysis extension in ArcGIS 10.1 , and classified to 7-8 classes according to density levels . The classes with more density are less convenient, and classes with less density are more convenient. Density of Rural population(DRP)

Density rural population map was obtained using the same process as for creating the map of density villages, also deserted villages were excluded, but taking into account the attributes of population of villages as weight field, in order to obtain a map describing the characteristics of the distribution of rural population .It is preferable to avoid setting up new settlements, or re-development the existing ones, inside the areas which have high rural density. Determination of Weights

One of the crucial points in this context of analysis is to assig weights to the criteria involved, the most powerful tool to solve this problem is AHP method (Akıncı et al 2013). The first step is to establish priorities of criteria or relative weights (Reciprocal matrix ) to differentiate the importance of the criteria(Hossain et al ,2007), in this study the priority of factors and criteria were assigned, depending on the author experience and field literatures related .The second step is to determine the weights by normalizing the pairwise comparison matrix (Erden & kun , 2010), finally a consistency ratio is calculated for the pairwise comparison matrix to verify the degree of credibility of the relative weights , by using the following ratio( Bunruamkaew ,2001 ; Hossain et al ,2007 ):

RICICR =

Where (RI) is the random consistency index. For n = 11 or 12, 48.151.1 orRI = . The consistency index (CI) is determined using the following equation (Anane et al, 2012):

1max

−−

=n

nCI λ

Where maxλ the maximum value of eigenvector, and (n) is the criteria number. If the value of consistency rate (CR) is above (0.10), then there are inconsistencies in

the evaluation process, but if the (CR) value is less than (0.10) indicating the consistency in evaluation process .The calculations of reciprocal matrix, pair wise comparison matrix, consistency ratio, random consistency index, consistency index, related to the study area criteria, can be seen in Table. 3 and 4 .Many researchers mentioned accurate details about theoretical framework and how to apply the AHP method (Hossain et al ,2007; Anane et al ;2012 ; Tudes & Yigiter, 2010 ; Sener et al, 2010 ;Thirumalaivasan, Karmegam & Venugopal, 2003; Vaidya, & Kumar, 2004 ; Xiaoguo,2010)

Table 3 Pairwise comparison matrix for suitability model in Amidy district and assigned weights of criteria LUT Slope DMR DR Aspe Eleva DS DC DRP DIVP DV Weights LUT 1 1 2

1 2 1 1

3 2 2 1

4 3 3 2 2

5 4 4 3 3

6 5 5 4 3

7 6 6 5 4

9 8 7 7 6

9 9 8 8 7

0.2196 0.1689 0.1552 0.1318 0.1047

Slope 1 0.50 0.5 0.33

1 DMR 1

1 0.5

1 DR 1

0.5 1

Aspect 1 1


237

Elevation 0.25 0.2 0.16 0.14 0.11 0.11

0.33 0.25 0.2 0.16 0.125 0.11

0.33 0.25 0.2 0.16 0.14 0.12

0.5 0.33 0.25 0.2 0.14 0.12

0.5 0.33 0.33 0.25 0.16 0.14

1 2 2 2

3 2 2

5 4 3 2

6 5 4 3 2

0.0697 0.0505 0.0390 0.0281 0.0184 0.0141

DS 0.5 0.5 0.33 0.2 0.16

1 DC 0.5

0.5 0.25 0.2

1 DRP 0.5

0.33 0.25

1 DIVP 0.5

0.33 1

DV 0.5 1

Lambda Max maxλ =(11.429) ,Consistency Index (CI)=(0.0429), Consistency Ratio (CR)=(0.028428882), Random Consistency Index (RI)=(1.51), n=(11)

Table 4 Pairwise comparison matrix for suitability model in Semil district and assigned weights of criteria

LUT Slope DMR DR Aspe Lake Eleva DS DC DRP DIVP DV Weights LUT 1 1 2 2 3 4 4 5 6 7 9 9 0.2086 Slope 1 1 1 1 2 3 3 4 5 6 8 9 0.1601 DMR 0.50 1 1 1 2 3 3 4 4 6 7 8 0.1456 DR 0.5 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 4 5 7 8 0.1235 Aspect 0.33 0.5 0.5 1 1 1 2 3 3 4 6 7 0.0950 Lake 0.33 0.33 0.33 0.5 1 1 1 2 3 4 5 7 0.0762 Elevation 0.25 0.33 0.33 0.5 0.5 1 1 1 2 3 4 5 0.0589

DS 0.2 0.25 0.25 0.33 0.33 0.5 1 1 1 2 3 4 0.0428 DC 0.16 0.2 0.25 0.25 0.33 0.33 0.5 1 1 1 2 3 0.0326 DRP 0.14 0.16 0.16 0.2 0.25 0.25 0.33 0.5 1 1 1 3 0.0240 DIVP 0.11 0.125 0.14 0.14 0.16 0.2 0.25 0.33 0.5 1 1 1 0.0175 DV 0.11 0.11 0.125 0.125 0.14 0.14 0.2 0.25 0.33 0.5 1 1 0.0145

Lambda Max maxλ =(12.344) ,Consistency Index (CI)=(0.0313), Consistency Ratio (CR)=(0.0211), Random Consistency Index (RI)=(1.48), n=(12)

Derivation of suitability models

The final step is to overly criteria layers, by combining the weights and criteria's maps to obtain an overall suitability score in composite maps. WLC was applied via below equation (Moeinaddini, Khorasani, Danehkar, Darvishsefat,& Zienalyan ,2010 ; Malczewski, 2006 ; Xu & Zhang , 2013 ; Bunruamkaewa ,2001 ) :

∑=

×=n

iii CWR

1 Where R is the suitability index, iW is the weight of thi − criterion derived from the pairwise comparison matrix in AHP method, )1(∑ =W , iC is the standard score of the

thi − criterion, n number of criteria. Results and Discussions Distribution patterns of settlements

Tables 5 summarize the results of applying (NNA) tool in study area, it shows quite clearly that there is different patterns of settlements distribution, between random, clustered, and dispersed.

Table. 5 Results of NNA in study area. semil Amidy Districts

Standards Deserted inhabited Total

villages Deserted inhabited Total villages

3555.7 1979.6 1844.5 1712.6 1726.7 1338.6 Observed Mean Distance 3799.6 1633.7 1500.8 1653.6 2262.5 1335 Expected Mean Distance

0.93 1.21 1.22 1.03 0.76 1.00 Nearest Neighbor Ratio(NNR) -0.57 4.41 5.2 1.07 -5.22 0.10 Critical Value (Z-score) 0.56 0.00 0.00 0.28 0.00 0.91 Significance Level(P-value)

random dispersed dispersed random clustered random Distribution Pattern


238

The most important values in Table 5 are that related to the pattern distribution of inhabited settlements. In Amidy district the pattern distribution is clustered (NNR is 0.76) in a high statistically significant, as long as the Z-Score is negative (-5.22) and out of the range of critical value (+2.58 and - 2.58), and at a very high confident level (P-value) , so in a high confident level we reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis which states that the settlements are distributed according to special pattern far from randomization .While in Semil district the pattern distribution is dispersed (NNR is 1.21) also in a high statistically significant , as long as the Z-Score is positive (4.41) and out of the range of critical value (+2.58 and - 2.58), and also at a very high confident level (P-value) . As set forth above, these results enhance our attitude, in to proceed towards formulate an alternative models, suitable to achieve sustainable rural development in study area. Suitability Distribution models

According to the implementation of suitability concept techniques which utilized in this study, two suitability maps were obtained, highlighted the level of suitability of land for redeveloping rural sector in both districts of study area. In general the end products are generalized maps showing areas that are having either low, moderate, or high land suitability as shown in Fig 5, 6 and Table 6.

Fig. 5 Suitability map of Semil distric

Fig. 6 Suitability map of Amidy district


239

The results show that more than half area of the study region, of about (53.7%)(2144.5 km2), is either suitable or highly suitable to build new settlements, which make up(28.6%)and (25%) respectively, so it's clearly favorable for human being living, while the remaining area (1848.5 km2) are clearly rated as either moderately, poorly suitable , or unsuitable,(22.81%),(16.29%),(7.19%) respectively and this area is more or less unfavorable for human being living.

But the data in this regard has demonstrated clearly different picture than above in Amidy and Semil district. Only about (0.67%)(8.5 km2) from the whole of Semil region was rated unsuitable, and (5.87%)(74.5 km2) as poorly suitable ,(18.27%) (232 km2) moderately suitable , In return a very large portion of the area, more than three-quarters of the total area of the region about (955 km2) or (75.19%) comes under suitable or highly suitable area, make up (39.46%)and(35.73%) respectively. This area mainly located in the central, south and south west parts of region, while unsuitable area coincident with the mountainous area in the north and north east parts of the region (Fig. 3).

Table. 6 Total and percentage area according to the suitability levels in study area Study area Semil District Amidy District Level of suitability % Area km2 % Area km2 % Area km2

7.19 286.9 0.67 8.5 10.22 278.4 unsuitable 16.29 650.6 5.87 74.5 21.16 576.1 poorly suitable 22.81 911.0 18.27 232 24.94 679 moderately suitable 28.63 1143.3 39.46 501.2 23.58 642.1 suitable 25.07 1001.2 35.73 453.8 20.10 547.4 highly suitable 100 3993.0 100 1270 100 2723

in Amedy district the proportional distribution of area on suitable classes depicts a kind of proportionality, more than (10%)(278.4 km2) of the area region are rated as unsuitable, and it is clearly unfavourable for human being living ,(%21.16)(576.1km2) rated poorly suitable , (24.94%)(679km2) rated as moderately suitable. while a large portion of the area of region rated as either suitable or highly suitable, (23.58%)(20.10%) respectively , or (642.1 km2) and (547.4 km2) of the total area of region .the last two classes stretches crosswise in the form of a cross section, between eastern and western parts of the region , while unsuitable and poorly suitable area are more concentrated in the northern and north eastern parts of region (Fig. 4 ) Conclusion

At the final of analytical process the study concluded that there are an extensive areas unexploited, If it is exploited in a rational manner, it could play a pivotal role in development of rural sector. Additionally, the study indicated that there was a slight discrepancy between the spatial pattern of existing suitability potential and the actual distribution of settlements , therefore the study proposed to construct a new settlements, or candidate some of the deserted ones to be revived (Fir 7 and 8). The results show also that the spatial patterns of distribution of settlements, are not coincides with the spatial pattern of distribution of suitability areas.

In spite of all the aforementioned, the suitability analysis attempted in this study must be viewed as a basic prioritization of land for rural development, therefore, further study should be undertaken to carry out and determine land use suitability index for this purpose. A more refined result will be obtained if study conducted on criteria with more details. Therefore, more efforts are needed to put on survey and fieldwork to collect accurate data on criteria being used. Moreover, the results of the study could be considered as preliminary index for local authorities and decision makers to guide them to take adequate decisions, beside the fact that, the adopted methodology may be also applicable elsewhere in Iraqi Kurdistan Region to assess and re-develop rural sector.


240

Fig. 7 Proposed model for redevelopment of rural sector in Semil district

Fig. 6 Proposed model for redevelopment of rural sector in Amidy district

References: Akıncı, Halil, Ayse, Yavuz, Ozalp , & Bulent, Turgut.(2013). Agricultural land use suitability analysis using GIS and AHP technique. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 97, 71–82. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2013.07.006 Al-Mumaiz, Maha O. (2012). Spatial Multi-Criteria Assessment to Select Optimum Route To Improve Transportation Network in Al-Omarah City. Eng. & Tech. Journal, .30(8), 1351-1361. Anane, Makram, Lamia. Bouziri, Atef. Limam, & Salah. Jellali. (2012). Ranking suitable sites for irrigation with reclaimed water in the Nabeul-Hammamet region (Tunisia) using GIS and AHP-multicriteria decision analysis. Resources. Conservation and Recycling, 65, 36– 46. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2012.05.006


241

Bunruamkaew, Khwanruthai. (2011). and Yuji Murayamaa. Site Suitability Evaluation for Ecotourism Using GIS & AHP: A Case Study of Surat Thani Province. Thailand. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 21,269–278.doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.07.024 Campagna, Michele.(2006).GIS for Sustainable Development. New York: CRC Press. Demesouka, O.E., A.P. Vavatsikos , & K.P. Anagnostopoulos .(2013). Suitability analysis for siting MSW landfills and its multicriteria spatial decision support system: Method, implementation and case study, Waste Management,33(5),1190–1206. Effat, Hala A., & Mohamed N. Hegazy. (2012). Mapping potential landfill sites for North Sinai cities using spatial multicriteria evaluation, The Egyptian Journal of Remote Sensing and Space Science, 15(2), 125–133.Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrs.2012.09.002 Erden, T., & M. Z. Cos¸kun.(2010). Multi-criteria site selection for fire services: the interaction with analytic hierarchy process and geographic information systems. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.,10, 2127–2134. doi:10.5194/nhess-10-2127-2010 . Retrieved from www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/10/2127/2010/ Heacock, Erin, & Justin, Hollander. (2011). A grounded theory approach to development suitability analysis. Landscape and Urban Planning, 100,(1–2), 109–116. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2010.12.001 Henig, Mordechai, I., & John T. Buchanan. (1996). Solving MCDM Problems: Process Concepts, Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, 5, 3-21. Hossain, M. Shahadat, Sayedur. Rahman Chowdhury,Nani Gopal Das, & M. Moshiur Rahaman.(2007).Multi-criteria evaluation approach to GIS-based land suitability classification for tilapia farming in Bangladesh. Aquacult Int, 15,425–443. doi:10.1007/s10499-007-9109-y. Jeong, J.S., L. García-Moruno, & J. Hernández-Blanco.(2012). Integrating buildings in to a rural landscape using a multi-criteria spatial decision analysis in GIS-enabled web environment, Biosystems Engineering,112(2), 82–92. Jeong, Jin. Su, Lorenzo García-Moruno, & Julio Hernández-Blanco.(2013). A site planning approach for rural buildings into a landscape using a spatial multi-criteria decision analysis methodology. Land Use Policy, 32, 108–118. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2012.09.018 Kemp, Karen.K,(ed).(2008).Encyclopedia of Geographic Information Science.London: SAGE Publications. Koc-San, D. , B.T. San ,V. Bakis , M. Helvaci , & Z. Eker.(2013). Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis integrated with GIS and remote sensing for astronomical observatory site selection in Antalya province, Turkey. Advances in Space Research, 52(1), 39–51. Lloyd, Christopher,D.(2010). Spatial data analysis, an introduction for gis users. New York: Oxford University Press. Malczewski, Jacek.( 2004). GIS-based land-use suitability analysis: a critical overview. Progress in Planning, 62. 3–65. doi:10.1016/j.progress.2003.09.002 Malczewski, Jacek.(2006). GIS based multicriteria decision analysis: a survey of the literature. International Journal of Geographical Information Science,20(7),703–726 , dio:10.1080/13658810600661508. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13658810600661508 Moeinaddini, Mazaher, Nematollah Khorasani, Afshin Danehkar,Ali Asghar Darvishsefat, & Mehdi zienalyan.(2010). Sitting MSW landfill using weighted linear combination and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) methodology in GIS environment (case study: Karaj), Waste Management,30, 912–920.doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2010.01.015 Mohajeri, Nahid, & Gholam, R. Amin. (2010). Railway station site selection using analytical hierarchy process and data envelopment analysis. Computers & Industrial Engineering,59(1),107–114.


242

Sener, Sehnaz,. Erhan Sener , Bilgehan Nas ,& Remzi Karaguzel.(2010). Combining AHP with GIS for landfill site selection: A case study in the Lake Beys_ehir catchment area (Konya, Turkey). Waste Management, 30, 2037-2046, doi:10.1016/j.wasman..05.024. Sharifi, Mozafar, Mosslem Hadidi , Elahe Vessali , Parasto Mosstafakhani , Kamal Taheri , Saber Shahoie, & Mehran Khodamoradpour.(2009). Integrating multi-criteria decision analysis for a GIS-based hazardous waste landfill sitting in Kurdistan Province, western Iran. Waste Management, 29(10), 2740–2758. Silva, Ceballos, A. & Lopez, Blanco, J.(2003). Delineation of suitable areas for crops using a Multi Criteria Evaluation approach and land use cover mapping: a case study in Central Mexico, Agricultural Systems,77,117–136. Thirumalaivasan, D., M. Karmegam, & K. Venugopal.(2003). AHP-DRASTIC: software for specific aquifer vulnerability assessment using DRASTIC model and GIS. Environmental Modelling & Software, 18,645–656.doi:10.1016/S1364-8152(03)00051-3. Tudes, Sule , & Nazan Duygu Yigiter.(2010). Preparation of land use planning model using GIS based on AHP: case study Adana-Turkey. Bull Eng Geol Environ ,69, 235–245: doi: 10.1007/s10064-009-0247-5 . Vahidnia, Mohammad .H, Ali A.Alesheikh , & Abbas Ali, mohammadi.(2009). Hospital site selection using fuzzy AHP and its derivatives, Journal of Environmental Management, 90(10),3048–3056. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2009.04.010 . Vaidya, Omkarprasad S., & Sushil Kumar.(2006). Analytic hierarchy process: An overview of applications. European Journal of Operational Research, 169,1–29. doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2004.04.028. Wang, Guiqin, Li. Qin. Guoxue. Li. , & Lijun, Chen.(2009). Landfill site selection using spatial information technologies and AHP: A case study in Beijing, China. Journal of Environmental Management ,90(8),2414–2421. Xiaoguo, Jiang. (2010). Integration of Interval Numbers and the Method of AHP along with its Improvement and Application. 3rd International Conference on Information Management, Innovation Management and Industrial Engineering.doi: 10.1109/ICIII.2010.108 . Xu, Erqi, & Hongqi Zhang.(2013).Spatially-explicit sensitivity analysis for land suitability evaluation, Applied Geography,45, 1-9. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2013.08.005 Zamorano, Montserrat, Emilio Molero, Álvaro Hurtado , Alejandro Grindlay , & Ángel Ramos .(2008). Evaluation of a municipal landfill site in Southern Spain with GIS-aided methodology, Materials, 30.473–481.


243

ECOSYSTEM-BASED APPROACH TO NORWEGIAN AQUACULTURE MANAGEMENT

Saleh Alaliyat, PhD Candidate Aalesund University College, Norway

Abstract The Norwegian aquaculture is a growing industry and has become an important

industry in Norway. It is one of the most export industries, and contributes to activities throughout the whole country, particularly in many local communities along the cost where the aquaculture industry activity is concentrated. Poor management and unregulated aquaculture industry will lead to many negative effects on the whole ecosystem. The ecosystem has thresholds and limits that can affect the system structure when exceeded. The ecosystem approach for aquaculture is a strategy for the integrated management of land, water, and living resources that it promotes sustainable development, equity, and resilience of interlinked social and ecological systems. Aquaculture development needs to be within the carrying capacity of the water resources, social-based and within other relative sectors so that is sustainable without negative impacts on the environment. In this paper, I will discuss an applying ecosystem-based approach to Norwegian aquaculture at different scales to ensure a sustainable aquaculture development without negative impacts on the environment.

Keywords: Ecosystem-based management, Norwegian aquaculture, sustainability, aquaculture management, ecosystem approach to aquaculture Introduction

Aquaculture is about to revolutionize the way we consume fish and other marine food products as agriculture already did on land. During the past few decades’ world capture fisheries have stabilized or decreased, whereas aquaculture production has increased massively (FAO30 2012). In 2010, aquaculture stood for 47% of global food fish production, and in Norway the export value of farmed seafood now exceeds that of wild caught species (FKD31 2013). Today, fish is the third most important export product after oil/gas and metal, and accounts for 5.7 per cent of the total Norwegian export value according to Statistics Norway (SBB32 2013). Norway is the largest exporter of aquaculture products in Europe, and number six globally, after Asian nations such as China, India and Indonesia (FAO 2012). This industry is very important for the farmers and the people living along the cost according to the benefits in the form of labour opportunities and financial income. The number of employees who employed directly in the aquaculture production is around 9000, but more than 22,000 are involved in this industry. Most people in Norway (about 80 percent of the population) live in less than 10 km from the sea. It is thus clearly of high importance for Norwegian economy to ensure a sustainable aquaculture development.

The costal/fjord ecosystems receive fresh water inputs; rich in organic and mineral nutrients derived from erosion, urban, agricultural, aquaculture and industrial effluents, and are subject to strong anthropogenic pressures due to the fish farming. The interactions between land environment and sea boundaries reveal high physical, chemical and biological 30 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 31 The Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs. 32 Statistics Norway, www.ssb.no


244

complexities, making the management decisions difficult to take and the consequences of these decisions very hard to predict. Emissions from onshore activities in Norway, from the offshore oil and gas industry and from ships all contribute to inputs of various substances to fjords areas and coastal waters where the aquaculture industry activity is concentrated. Norwegian government is working with all the stockholders to ensure that the Norwegian aquaculture industry is run on a sustainable basis and eco-friendly as well (figure 1). A sustainable aquaculture industry should run with consideration for the environment, and adapted to the surrounding marine environment and biological diversity. It is important to ensure a clean marine environment and good production locations for aquaculture, with minimum impact from transport emissions and pollution from more local sources. Therefore, authorities and industry must cooperate to ensure a sustainable aquaculture development with benefit of its surroundings (ecosystem-based). An environmentally sustainable aquaculture industry, minimizing risks to the marine environment and biological diversity, is a prerequisite for long-term growth and development. The strategy of the Norwegian government identifies five key areas where aquaculture may potentially have a negative impact on the environment (FKD 2009); 1) Escaped fish/genetic interaction; 2) Pollution and discharges; 3) Diseases and parasites; 4) Use of coastal areas; 5) Feed and feed resources. In this paper I will discuss an applying ecosystem-based approach to Norwegian aquaculture at different scales to ensure a sustainable aquaculture development without negative impacts on the environment.

Figure 1: Illustration of sustainable development

Ecosystem approach to aquaculture

Aquaculture growth invariably involves the expansion of cultivated areas, higher density of aquaculture installations and of farmed individuals, and use of feed resources produced outside of the immediate area, thus many negative effects are identified when the sector grows unregulated or under poor management. Norwegian aquaculture operates in the natural environment (mostly in fjords and coastal areas) that we all share, and that imposes obligates on everyone concerned. The authorities, research communities and industry are all should work together to operate the Norwegian aquaculture in a sustainable framework.

Applying an ecosystem approach to aquaculture must involve physical, ecological, social and economics systems in the planning for community development (White et al. 2008). FAO definition of the ecosystem approach to aquaculture is:

An ecosystem approach to aquaculture (EAA) is a strategy for the integration of the activity within the wider ecosystem such that it promotes sustainable development, equity, and resilience of interlinked social-ecological (Soto et al. 2008).

The participation of stakeholders is at the base of the strategy, and EAA is not what is done but rather how it is done. The EAA is based on the principles of sustainable development, where sustainable is not restricted to ecological consideration only, but includes economic and social considerations and their interaction with ecological ones (figure 1). Both the social and biophysical or ecological dimensions of ecosystems are tightly linked, so that disruption in one is likely to cause a disruption or change in the other.


245

The goal of EAA is to overcome the sectoral and intergovernmental fragmentation of resources management efforts and to develop institutional mechanisms for effective coordination among various sectors active in the ecosystems in which aquaculture operates and between the various levels of government. Key principles Reference to (Soto et al. 2008), the EAA should be guided by three main interlinked principles to ensure aquaculture contributes positively to sustainable development and getting the balance between ecological and human well-being: Principle 1

Aquaculture development and management should take account of the full range of ecosystem functions and services, and should not threaten the sustained delivery of these to society.

Developing aquaculture in the context of ecosystem functions and services is a challenge that involves defining ecosystem boundaries (at least operationally), estimating some assimilative and production carrying capacities, and adapting farming practices accordingly. This requires to consider ecosystem services to be preserved or guaranteed. Principle 2 Aquaculture should improve human well-being and equity for all relevant stakeholders.

This principle seeks to ensure that aquaculture provides equitable includes opportunities for development and equitable sharing of its benefits. This ensuring that it does not result in any undue detriment for any groups within society, especially the most vulnerable. Both food security and safety are to be promoted as key components of well-being. Principle 3 Aquaculture should be developed in the context of other sectors, policies and goals.

This principle recognizes the interactions between aquaculture and the larger system, in particular, the influence of the surrounding natural and social environments on aquaculture practices and results. This principle also acknowledges the opportunity of coupling aquaculture activities with other production sectors to promote materials and energy recycling and better use of resources in general. This principle is a call for the development of multi-sectoral or integrated planning and management systems. Implementations

Because EAA is applied to large, diverse areas encompassing an array of interactions between species, ecosystem components, and humans, it is often perceived as a complex process that is difficult to implement. But in light of significant ecosystem degradation, there is a need for a holistic approach that combines environmental knowledge and co-ordination with governing agencies to initiate, sustain and enforce habitat and species protection, and include public education and involvement.

The EAA requires an appropriate policy framework under which the strategy develops through several steps (FAO 2010):

The definition and scoping of ecosystem boundaries and identifying the stakeholders. Defining clear and concise goals for EAA is one of the most important steps in effective EAA implementation. Identification of the main issues. Prioritization of these issues. Definition of operational objectives. Elaboration of an implementation plan.


246

The corresponding implementation process, which includes reinforcing, monitoring and evaluation. Long-term policy review. As described by Tallis et al. (2010), some steps of ecosystem-based management in general may include: Scoping This step involves the acquisition of data and knowledge from various sources in order to provide a thorough understanding of critical ecosystem components. Defining indicators Defining indicators are useful for tracking or monitoring an ecosystem’s status and can provide feedback on management progress (Slocombe 1998). Examples may include the population size of a species or the levels of toxin present in a body of water. Social indicators may also be used such as the number or types of jobs within the environmental sector or the livelihood of specific social groups such as indigenous peoples. Setting thresholds Tallis et al. (2010) suggest setting thresholds for each indicator and setting targets that would represent a desired level of health for the ecosystem. Thresholds can be used to help guide management, particularly for a species by looking at the conservation status criteria established by either state or federal agencies and using models such as the minimum viable population size. Risk analysis A range of threats and disturbances, both natural and human, often can affect indicators. Risk is defined as the sensitivity of an indicator to an ecological disturbance. Several models can be used to assess risk such as population viability analysis. Monitoring Evaluating the effectiveness of the implemented management strategies is very important in determining how management actions are affecting the ecosystem indicators. Evaluation involves monitoring and assessing data to see how well the management strategies chosen are performing relative to the initial objectives stated. The Norwegian Aquaculture Act and The Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs Strategy Plan The Norwegian Fish Farming Act was adopted almost 30 years ago at a time when the focus was on incorporating the existing enterprises into the licensing system and ensuring that new aquaculture activities were established in a responsible manner. Since 1985, there has been extensive development of the aquaculture industry. The purpose of the Act, which is in use since 2006, is to promote the profitability and competitiveness of the aquaculture industry within the framework of a sustainable development and contribute to the creation of value on the cost (The Norwegian Aquaculture Act, 2005). The establishment of aquaculture is not regulated by the aquaculture Act only, its regulated by several Acts with associated regulations (Legal framework for aquaculture operation, 2010). The Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs has worked on the legislation on the basis of four special focus areas:

Growth and innovation in the industry: profitability and innovation in light of Norway’s international competitive situation. Simplification for the industry and public administration: greater efficiency and user friendliness. The environment: modern and comprehensive environmental regime. Relationship to other user interests in the coastal zone: efficient land utilization. The act applies on the Norwegian aquaculture industry. The aquaculture industry includes the production of fish, molluscs, echinoderms, crustaceans and other living aquatic animals and plants. The organisms are produced primarily for consumption, but they are also


247

used as inputs in other products, including products in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. Increasing the number, weight or quality of these organisms, or preferably a combination of these factors, lies at the core of these activities. This can be accomplished through active feeding and treatment, or by the stocking, collection and storage of these organisms in their natural habitat. The enterprises have developed from small-scale production with local roots to large production units with obvious industrial characteristics. The Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs will ensure that the Norwegian aquaculture industry is run on a sustainable basis. A sustainable aquaculture industry is one which is run with consideration for the environment, and adapted to the marine environment and biological diversity. As a food producer, the aquaculture industry depends on good environmental conditions and water quality, which means that in order to protect their own businesses, fish farmers have an obvious interest in maintaining good water quality and avoiding any negative impact on their surroundings. It is important to ensure a clean marine environment and good production locations for aquaculture, with minimum impact from long-distance transport emissions and pollution from more local sources. Similarly, the authorities and industry must cooperate to ensure that aquaculture is run to the benefit of its surroundings, and not to their detriment. Different spatial scales

EAA involves interactions among different spatial, production and temporal scales, within and among ecological, economical and social systems, and among stakeholder groups and communities interested in the present and future health of aquaculture areas. There is a high need to define the ecosystem boundaries and stakeholders when attempting to implement the EAA and connect it to a strategy plan. The aquaculture industry in Norway is very important for Norwegian economy and for whole the world as well in the context of food security and climate change. Figure 2 shows the aquaculture activity in Norway. The figure includes all types of licenses for fish, crustaceans, shell and shellfish, its clearly shows the coastal concentration. Inlands marks include licenses for juvenile production for on growing production in sea cages, arctic charr and cultivation farms.

Figure 2: Geographical distribution of aquaculture licenses in Norway (www.fiseridir.no)


248

The Norwegian government has already lunched three integrated management plans to cover all the Norwegian cost. By following international guidelines for ecosystem-based management, the plans provide an overall framework for managing all human activities (oil, gas, shipping, fishing and aquaculture industry) in these areas to ensure the continued production and function of the ecosystem (figure 3). These plans are steered by many authorities, organizations and institutions from different fields. Directorate of Fisheries, Institute of Marine Research, Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affaires are directly involved in the aquaculture part.

The Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs has a strategy plan to have an environmentally sustainable Norwegian aquaculture industry. Help and considerably cooperation of the Directorate of Fisheries, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, the Institute of Marine Research and the National Veterinary Institute in doing this strategy. Table 1 shows the five sustainability elements and summaries the goals of each element. In the following of this section, I will connect these elements with the EAA at different spatial scales.

Figure 3: Areas for management plans (www.imr.no)

Number Element Goal 1 Genetic influence and

escapes Aquaculture does not cause irreversible genetic changes of the wild fish populations

2 Pollution and discharges All aquaculture sites in use keep within an acceptable environmental condition and do not have a higher discharge of nutrients or organic material than the recipient can handle.

3 Disease and parasites Diseases in aquaculture do not have a population effect on wild fish, and as fish much as possible are produced to harvestable size without the use of therapeutics.

4 Use of area The aquaculture industry has a layout of sites and area use that minimize the environmental effects and exposure hazard

5 Feed resources The need for feed ingredients /resources are covered with out over exploiting the wild marine fish stocks

Table 1: The five focus elements for a sustainable development of the aquaculture sector set by Norwegian Government.

http://www.imr.no/


249

The farm scale: In 2012, the total number of licenses in Norway was around 2000 (DOF, 2012). The

Norwegian aquaculture is concentrated in the coastal line (around 1300 sites). The individual farm in general is easy to locate and identify, but in cage aquaculture and open ecosystems as in Norwagian coastal areas is challenging to establish the boundary of potential effects (Halwart and Soto et al., 2007). Farm and cage sizes are very related to the environmental impacts such as escape and disease. Preventing genetic interaction and escape controlling start at this scale. Escaped problem is one of the main challenges which threaten the ecosystem in Norway (Jensen et al. 2010), even if the escaped fish total has been reduced recently (FKD 2009). The aquaculture in Norway use very advanced technologies to prevent the escaped fish. The government has a very good inspection program to follow the farming process, and the law is very strict regarding to the escapes.

For the pollution and discharges from fish farming in Norway, this is a minor environmental problem now since Norway has a very long coastline, high level of circulation and a good water quality. But in farm scale we can measure the ecosystem impacts on aquaculture. In Norway, MOM (fish farms – monitoring – modelling) method is mandatory by regulation to monitor the effects on the bottom and on the benthic fauna under and near farming facilities. This method describes how effects on the sea bed are to be monitored, and which environmental thresholds are to be applied (Evik et al. 1997).

Diseases as escapes originate and can be prevented at this scale although their effects usually occur at the watershed scale. Disease including parasites continues to be a major loss factor in Norwegian aquaculture industry. Diseases and parasites can represent a serious threat to wild fish population. Using antibiotics to combating bacterial diseases and having a proper cage size are significant for disease control in Norway.

Use of area and feed recourses are mainly related to the other scales and to the regional plans, but it’s hardly connected to the environmental impacts on the aquaculture sites at this level.

The main stakeholders at this scale are farm owners, the farm workers, family members and local inhabitants who are benefits from the farm. The watershed/ aquaculture zone scale:

This scale includes a cluster of farms that share a common waterbody and that need a coordinated management. Norway has a long coastline (approximately 101,000 Kilometers in total, mainland including fjords and island coastlines) with around 1200 fjords, thus most of the aquaculture is concentrated in the coast (Statistics Norway for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2013). Norway has more that 200 coastal zoon plans. These plans include research institutions, industry representatives and authorities such as: local authority (municipality), regional authority (county), local communities, research institutions, farmers’ representatives, … etc. (DOF, 2012).

Preventing escapes take place at the farm scale, but relevant impacts on biodiversity often occur throughout entire watersheds. At this scale, the research institutions by cooperating with other stockholders (authorities, communities and companies) run monitoring programs to understand the DNA profiles, genetic stability and understanding of the effects of escaped farmed fish have on wild populations. Considerable work and research is done and still running in Norway on the genetic interaction, particularly on the wild salmon (Geir et al. 2011).

The pollution and discharges are also taken place at this scale. A lot of coastal zoon plans focus on the pollution and discharges level in the fjords or in the aquaculture zones. The Norwegian government prioritizes research into environmental data, water quality and fjord and coast ecology. Protect of environmental sustainability by developing location criteria is taking place at this level. And conditions related to operation, biomass, location of farming


250

facilities can have negative effects and lead to eutrophication and overexploitation (HRMS, 2013). Even if disease outbreaks take place at the farm scale, but need control, management and mitigation at this scale. The diseases can spread through currents or transporting process (Stene and Viljugrein et al., 2014). In Norway, there are strict requirements for well boats and transport to prevent disease spreads particularly salmon lice. And there many models that used to figure out and monitor the disease and lice spread in specific aquaculture areas such as SINMOD model which is used to simulate the dynamic of fish viruses between aquaculture sites (MODS 2012). Effective zoning facilitates maximum production within a limited geographical area and without unacceptable impact on the environment. The Norwegian government cooperates with other stakeholders to have better location criteria to ensure the sustainability in the aquaculture industry in ecosystem-based.

Regards to the growth of the Norwegian aquaculture industry, the need to feed recourses is growing as well. Most of the feed is produced in Norway. The goal is to have the need of raw materials for feed without over exploitation of wild marine resources. To maintain sustainable production of farmed fish, it is important that fishmeal and fish oil used in the production of fish feed come from sustainability-managed stock. Using marine by-products for feed and produce the feed in the same area will strength the sustainability. The global scale: EAA at a global scale considers aspects of trans-national and multi-national issues such as climate change, trade of aquaculture products, feed resources and food security. Global issues are normally tackled by international organizations (e.g. FAO) and corporation between the governments. The strategy plan of the Norwegian government is more focusing on the farm and watershed scales, but the environmental impacts has effects at global scale as well.

Climate change has a direct effect on combating the fish diseases and improving the fish quality. Higher temperature and stronger wind (cause to stronger currents) will alter the traditional aquaculture in Norway. Many research institutions developed models to investigate the effects of climate change on the ecosystem as whole and on the aquaculture and fish in particular (Imr.no, 2014).

The pollution and discharges are global issues. The water quality is affected by climate change and other activities, and then has a direct effect on the fish quality. In Norway, there are many research projects on the pollution and discharges issues to investigate fish health and the biochemical consequences (HRMS, 2013).

Regarding to the enormous growth in the Norwegian aquaculture industry, there is enormous growth in feed consumption. Fishmeal and fish oil is the main components in fish feed, but in resent years, using of vegetable oils has growth. On a global basis, the average production of fishmeal and fish oil is generated from around 33 millions tons of fish annually. Norway produces around 200,000 tones of fishmeal and 55,000 tons of fish oil annually, and imports 200,000 tones of fishmeal and 170,000 tons of fish oil (FKD, 2009). The countries (Peru, Denmark, Iceland,...) which export fishmeal and fish oil to Norway have active fishing management and the management of the actual fish species in these countries follows the same principles as in Norway.

Some of the major issues at different scales relating to the key principles: The EAA should be guided by the three main interlinked principles to ensure the

sustainability. The issues pertaining to principle 1, at the farm scale, usually have to do with the

management practices. Best management practices and risk analysis are implemented at this scale in Norway. Farmed fish escapes and diseases / sea lice are controlled at this level. MOM system is applied at this scale also. Regarding to principle 2, Norwegian aquaculture increase


251

the employment opportunities and improve farmers and their family’s condition. Following principle 3 at this scale, Norway has already started research project to utilize discharge and waste for Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) (Wang et al. 2013). Research project (Integrate) from SINTEF33 focused on IMTA. For small-scale farm system (distance up to 100m from cages), Intensive Integrated Aquaculture (IIA) model has been developed (Sintef.no, 2014).

The issues pertaining to the key principles at the watershed/ aquaculture zone scale: First, regarding to principle 1, potentially cumulative contribution of cluster of farms to the environmental impacts should be investigated at this scale. Norway use MOM system to evaluate and monitor the ecosystem effects of aquaculture (and other sectors) at this scale (Ervik et al. 1997). Regarding to principle 2, Norwegian government by cooperating with local authorities, research institutions and industry has lunched many ecosystem-based management plans in many coastal regions to improve human-well being and social equity to the stakeholders. Following principle 3 at this scale, Research project (Integrate) from SINTEF, that focused on IMTA, for large-scale /fjord system (distance in km), Extensive Integrated Aquaculture (EIA) model has been developed to evaluate IMTA feasibility (Sintef.no, 2014).

The issues pertaining to the key principles at the global scale: Regarding to principle 1, climate change affecting the Norwegian aquaculture development in the ecosystem context. Other relevant concerns are those related to the global environmental costs of aquaculture in terms of energy, water usage, etc. Following principle 2 at this scale is challenging. There is a need to improve the well-being of all relevant stakeholders within the context of trans-national aspects of production, markets, and other decision-making. The global scale offers an opportunity for enforcement of food safety producers to comply with global market demands. Regarding to the principle 3, Fish and aquatic proteins are increasing in world diets, and Norwegian aquaculture is rapidly increasing its relevance. The competition with other sectors for feeds is increasing and the competition for water /area use with other sectors are increasing also. Conclusion

EAA involves recognizing and addressing interactions among different spatial scales, within and among ecological and social systems, and among stakeholder groups and communities interested in having a sustainable development in health areas. Human use coastal and ocean resources at multiple spatial scales, and recognition of the social and bio geophysical interactions that operate across different spatial scales are vital to effective management.

The Norwegian aquaculture industry is growing rapidly in the recent years, thus the Norwegian government wants to ensure that the Norwegian aquaculture industry is run on a sustainable basis. The Norwegian aquaculture is competing with other industry (gas and oil) in the coast for the resources, and all the industries and the services have their impacts on the environment. The Norwegian government has lunched a strategy plan to have an eco-friendly, sustainable aquaculture industry. The Norwegian aquaculture needs to keep a good knowledge, profitability and sustainability to continue growing and to keep the leading in aquaculture production in Europe and the rest of the world.

The Norwegian government has already lunched three integrated management plans by following international guidelines for ecosystem-based management. These plans are initiated and driven top-down by a coalition of governmental agencies and ministries, thus they need a good coordinating between them. These management plans describes a set of elements for evaluating the ecological quality, including indicators and action thresholds 33 SINTEF (Norwegian: Stiftelsen for industriell og teknisk forsning) is the largest independent research organisation in Scandinavia.


252

which will be used to monitor biological diversity, sustainability of fishing, pollution, and the safety of marine foods harvested in the area. Important issues that are related to aquaculture are: 1) Sustainability indicators (Disease (sea lice) and escapes), 2) Siting structure, 3) Instruments in the Aquaculture Act and 4) Farming technology.

The Norwegian aquaculture management must take account of the nature and functioning of ecosystems at a range of spatial scales, from highly local to global. Therefore, there is a need of a “nested approach” with different approaches to management according to scale. Implementation of the EAA will require the development of institutions and associated integrated management systems which can deliver such an approach at realistic and practical scales, taking full account of the needs and impacts of other sectors. The key is to develop institutions capable of integration, especially in terms of shared agreed objectives and standards. EAA planning frameworks are not “top down” but heavily reliant on the dialogue between stakeholders. There is a strong linkage (interdependence) between the ecosystem approach and co-management.

The Norwegian aquaculture development will has better opportunities to run in a sustainable basis if: 1) utilize discharge for IMTA and Bio-FuEel, 2) Do more research on development of sterile fish (salmon), 3) Develop new technologies for removing risk and effect of escaped fish (escape free farms and systems), 4) utilize offshore knowledge for industry building. References: The Norwegian Aquaculture Act (2005), Available at: www.lovdata.no DOF (ed), (2012), Directorate of Fisheries: “Key figures from the Norwegian Aquaculture industry”, www.fiskeridir.no Ervik, A., Hansen, P.A., Aure, J., Stigebrandt, A., Johannessen, P., Jahnsen, T. (1997), “Regulating the local environmental impact of intensive marine fish farming I. The concept of the MOM system (Modelling – Ongrowing fish farms –Monitoring)”, Aquaculture 158, 85– 94. FAO (ed), (2012), “The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture”, Rome, Italy. FAO (ed), (2010), “Aquaculture development. 4. Ecosystem approach to aquaculture”, FAO Technical Guidelines for Responsible Fisheries, No. 5, Suppl. 4. Rome, Italy, FAO. 2010. 53p. FKD (2013), “The Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs”, www.fisheries.no (accessed 30.11.2013). FKD (ed), (2009), Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs, Strategy Plan, 2009 “Strategy for an Environmentally Sustainable Norwegian Aquaculture Industry”, The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries (before, The Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs), 12 June 2009, Oslo, Norway. Viewed. 31 Dec. 2013. <http://www.regjeringen.no/upload/FKD/Vedlegg/Diverse/2009/strategy%20for%20an%20sustainable%20aquaculture.pdf >. Geir Lasse Taranger, Karin Kroon Boxaspen, Abdullah S. Madhun, & Terje Svåsand. (2011), “Risk assessment – environmental impacts of Norwegian aquaculture” (p. 52). Institute of Marine Research. Retrieved from http://www.imr.no/filarkiv/2011/08/risk_assessment_engelsk_versjon.pdf/en Halwart, M., Soto, D. and Arthur, J. R. (2007), “Cage aquaculture”, Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. HRMS (2013), “Helse, Reproduksjon, Miljø, Sikkerhet i marine økosystemer”, [report] Aalesund University College, Aalesund, Norway, Mai 2013. Imr.no. (2014), “Havforskningsinstituttet”, [online] Available at: http://www.imr.no [Accessed: 12 Mar 2014].


253

Jensen Ø, Dempster T, Thorstad EB, Uglem I, Fredheim A (2010), “Escapes of fishes from Norwegian sea-cage aquaculture: causes, consequences and prevention”, Aquac Environ Interact 1:71–83 Legal framework for aquaculture operation (2010), Available at http://www.fisheries.no/, accessed 20.01.2014 MODS (2012), “Strømmodellering og smitte-spredning”, http://mods.sinmod.no/ Sintef.no. (2014), “INTEGRATE”, [online] Available at: http://www.sintef.no/Projectweb/INTEGRATE---/ [Accessed: 12 Mar 2014]. Slocombe, D.S. (1998), “Defining goals and criteria for ecosystem-based management”, Environmental Management. 22:483-493. Soto, D., Aguilar-Manjarrez, J. & Hishamunda, N. (eds), (2008), “Building an ecosystem approach to aquaculture”, FAO University of Illes Balears Workshop. 7-11 May 2007, Palma de Mallorca Spain. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Proceedings. No. 14. FAO, Rome. 221p. SSB (2013), Statistics Norway, “Fishing and fish farming”, http://www.ssb.no/fiskeri_havbruk_en/ (accessed 01.02.2013). Statistics Norway for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, (2013), “Mimifacts about Norway 2013”, Oslo: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, p.p 6-12. Stene, A., Viljugrein, H., Yndestad, H., Tavornpanich, S. and Skjerve, E. (2014), “Transmission dynamics of pancreas disease (PD) in a Norwegian fjord: aspects of water transport, contact networks and infection pressure among salmon farms”, Journal of fish diseases, 37 (2), pp. 123--134. Tallis, H., Levin, P.S., Ruckelshaus, M., Lester, S.E., McLeod, K.L., Fluharty, D.L. and Halpern, B.S., (2010), “The many faces of ecosystem-based management: Making the process work today in real places”, Marine Policy. 34:340-348. Wang, Xinxin; Andresen, Kjersti; Handå, Aleksander; Jensen, Bjørn; Reitan, Kjell Inge; Olsen, Yngvar. (2013), “Chemical composition and release rate of waste discharge from an Atlantic salmon farm with an evaluation of IMTA feasibility”, Aquaculture Environment Interactions. volum 4. White, P. & L. M. San Diego-Mcglone, (2008), “Ecosystem-based approach to aquaculture management”, Science Diliman 20: 1–10.


254

SPATIAL VARIATION OF VULNERABILITY IN GEOGRAPHIC AREAS OF NORTH LEBANON

Sahar T. Issa, PhD candidate University of Twente, The Netherlands and University of Balamand, Lebanon

Irna van der Molen Coordinator at Centre for Risk Management, Safety and Security, University of Twente

Manal R. Nader, Associate Prof. Institute of Environment, University of Balamand.

Jon C. Lovett Chair in Global Challenges at School of Geography, University of Leeds

Abstract This paper examines the spatial variation in vulnerability between different

geographical areas of the northern coastal region of Lebanon within the context of armed conflict. The study is based on the ‘vulnerability of space’ approach and will be positioned in the academic debate on vulnerability concepts. While ‘vulnerability of place’ is referred to in literature, it has not been systematically studied in the case of Lebanon. Vulnerability symbolizes the physical, economic, political, or social susceptibility of a certain population to damage that is caused by a natural or man-made disaster. Vulnerability is multidimensional, differential, and scale-dependent, and can vary according to differential exposure, sensitivity, and coping capacity. In this paper, we identify features and manifestations of vulnerability that are particularly relevant to the coastal area of north Lebanon. We argue that the variation in a community’s vulnerability is affected not only by exposure to the environmental damage caused by repeated episodes of armed conflict but also by the sensitivity and coping capacity of the communities in the coastal area of north Lebanon. The findings are based on 500 questionnaire surveys among citizens in the study area, semi-structured and in-depth interviews with various stakeholders, and secondary literature.

Keywords: Vulnerability, armed conflict, environmental degradation, Lebanon Introduction

Vulnerability is a highly debated concept within Risk, Hazards, and Disaster Research and has been well covered in the literature (Kelly and Adger, 2000; Bankoff et al., 2004; Wisner et al., 2004; Flint and Luloff, 2005; Schröter et al., 2005; Adger, 2006; Birkmann, 2006; Füssel, 2006). The literature on vulnerability can be divided into three distinct themes when addressing its causal structure. One strand examines vulnerability in terms of the potential exposure to occurring hazards. This approach has been illustrated in several studies (Quarantelli, 1992; Alexander, 1993; Douglas, 2007; Uzielli et al., 2008; Bertrand et al., 2010). Physical vulnerability assessments often emphasize how hazardous conditions are distributed and the ways in which such circumstances can alter humans and structures. Another approach sees social vulnerability as a function of the underlying social conditions, which are often detached from the initially occurring hazard. Here, social vulnerability researchers treat exposure as a given, and seek forms of differential losses amongst affected communities. Studies that assess social vulnerability focus on understanding the ways in which communities are exposed to threats, and particularly on their potential coping capacity to resist as well as their ability to recover from the damaging impact of an event. Several studies follow this approach including Bohle et al. (1994), Adger (1999), Dunno (2011), Tate


255

(2012), and Yoon (2012). The third perspective, labelled vulnerability of place, combines both biophysical and social approaches. Vulnerability of place is thus considered in terms of biophysical risk and social response, while centered on a specific geographical domain. Research that adopts this perspective studies vulnerability within a specific geographical area in order to determine the location of vulnerable people and places, or within a social place to identify which groups are most vulnerable within that place. The vulnerability of place approach has been followed in several studies (Clark et al., 1998; Boruff et al., 2005; Cutter et al., 2000; Cross, 2001; Cutter et al., 2008).

In this paper, we adopt the vulnerability of place approach to examine the spatial variation of vulnerability across various geographical areas of the coastal area of north Lebanon within the context of armed conflict. The coastal area of north Lebanon has been involved in several episodes of armed conflict going back more than thirty years. Repeated armed conflicts in this area have resulted in substantial damage to the environment and subsequently to its communities, which are considered to include the poorest and most deprived families in Lebanon, thus adding to their existing vulnerabilities and aggravating their situation. In this study, we attempt to answer the following questions. What features and manifestations of vulnerability are particularly relevant to the coastal area of north Lebanon? How does vulnerability vary across the geographical areas within the study site? Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used in answering the questions, through semi-structured and in-depth interviews with various stakeholders, 500 questionnaires distributed among citizens living in the study areas, and secondary literature. Results show that the variation in communities’ vulnerability in the coastal area of north Lebanon has been affected not only by exposure to the environmental damage caused by episodes of armed conflict but also by the sensitivity and coping capacity of the communities. In the next section, we present a brief literature review on the vulnerability of place concept. Following this, we describe the study area and explain the methods used. Then we discuss the findings and draw conclusions. Theoretical Background

The inspiration for this study into understanding vulnerability, how it is manifested, and how it varies geographically within the study area stems from the ‘Hazards of Place’ theory as developed by Cutter (1996). When studying the vulnerability of place, ‘place’ is specifically highlighted in the context of ‘people living in hazardous places or in places made to be hazardous, not through choice but through external social, political, and economic forces’ (Lewis and Kelman, 2010, p.193). Thus, the inhabitants of a place often inherit and become subjected to the vulnerability of that place. According to Lewis and Kelman (2010), events that occurred in the recent or even the distant past of a certain place can affect not only the occupants of that place at the time they occurred, but also the inhabitants that follow: future generations for many years and maybe permanently. In addition, events that occur in a certain place may accumulate and through this become a manifestation of vulnerability of people, regardless of whether those people grew up there or moved in at a later stage. This is true not only for the inhabitants of a certain place, but also for people living in adjacent, proximate, and even distant areas. For example, displaced peoples and individuals who migrate as a result of vulnerability, or as a result of the manifestation of vulnerability in a disaster, can affect near or far communities through the vulnerability of the place from where they came (Lewis and Kelman, 2010).

As such, place vulnerability refers to people’s vulnerability in a specific geographic location and identifies its casual structure, spatial variation, and possible means for its reduction (Cutter et al., 2000). It combines potential exposure and social response but within a specific area. This approach was first conceptualized by Cutter (1996) who developed the ‘hazards-of-place’ model of vulnerability. This model is exploratory in nature, and integrates both the biophysical and social aspects of vulnerability by tying them to specific places.


256

Emphasizing the place offers the opportunity to study some of the fundamental social and biophysical characteristics that contribute to vulnerability, and also to evaluate their interaction and intersection (Cutter et al., 2000). Vulnerability of place may change over time depending on variations in the risk, mitigation, and settings within which hazards take place. Based on the hazards-of place model of vulnerability, the interaction between risk and mitigation produces an initial hazard potential, which is affected by the social fabric and the geographic context (Cutter, 1996). The social fabric covers various demographic and socioeconomic features of the area, in addition to the perceptions and experiences of the community regarding risks and hazards. The geographic context encompasses the geographic characteristics of the area as well as the exposure and proximity to hazardous events (Cutter et al., 2000). The interaction between the social fabric and the hazard potential generates a social vulnerability, while the interaction between the geographic context and the hazard potential leads to biophysical vulnerability. Place vulnerability results from the interaction between biophysical and social vulnerabilities (Cutter et al., 2000; Cutter et al., 2003). In this model, vulnerability of place presents a feedback loop to the risk input and the mitigation of origin that allows an increase or decrease in both risk and mitigation, resulting in either increasing or decreasing vulnerability (Cutter, 1996). From this perspective, the model is essentially dynamic and identifies the complex and continuously varying nature of vulnerability (See Figure 1, taken from Cutter, 1996, p.536).

Figure 1. The hazards-of-place model (Source: Cutter, 1996, p.536).

In measuring vulnerability of place, biophysical vulnerability is measured in terms of exposure. Variables associated with exposure often involve proximity to the source of threat, the probability or frequency of an event, and its magnitude, duration, or spatial impact (Luers, 2005; Adger, 2006; Gallopín, 2006). Social vulnerability is often measured by the quality of settlements and infrastructure, special needs’ population, socioeconomic status, gender, race, and similar facets (Cutter, 1996; Cutter et al., 2000; Cutter et al., 2003). In vulnerability studies, both the geographic scale and the time dimension are problematic issues when measuring vulnerability. Detailed vulnerability measurements are often conducted on the local level. However, detailed local case studies are often submerged within larger designs and distributions as part of the methodological applications employed. Further, even though the literature recognizes that time is a crucial dimension of vulnerability, the temporal context remains one of the least tackled features of vulnerability (Cutter, 1996). Study Area

The study site comprises the coastal area of north Lebanon which extends over 100 km or along roughly 40% of the entire Lebanese coast (Mitri et al., 2012). The area encompasses 24 cities and villages distributed among five areas: Akkar, Menieh, Tripoli, Koura, and Batroun (Figure 2). The northern areas are largely agricultural, whereas the southern part of


257

this coastline is characterized by urbanized areas with a number of large cities such as Tripoli and Batroun (Institute of the Environment, 2007). The population of north Lebanon is estimated to be around 764,000 inhabitants, around 20% of the total population of Lebanon (Central Administration of Statistics, 2007). The north of Lebanon is considered to be the poorest and most deprived part of the country, housing 46% of the extremely poor population and 38% of the overall poor within the country (El-Kak, 2000; Das and Davidson, 2011). In addition, this region is marginalized and has been historically neglected by the Lebanese government that focuses mainly on Beirut and its suburbs (Volk, 2009). The coastal area of north Lebanon has been involved in several episodes of armed conflict, namely the 1982 Israel Invasion, the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War, the 2007 Nahr el Bared Clashes, and the 2008 Tripoli Clashes, all of which have had direct and indirect impacts on the area. In particular, the study area was heavily affected by the Nahr el Bared Clashes in 2007 which had direct impacts including deaths, injuries, and environmental damage as well as indirect impacts such as people displacement, and disruption of agricultural and fishery activities.

Figure 2. Map of the study site.

Methodology

In this study, we define vulnerability as the ‘susceptibility of the communities of the coastal area of north Lebanon to environmental damage caused by episodes of armed conflict and their capacity to cope with threats or damage caused in that context’. We chose the ‘hazards of place’ model for various reasons. First, since this model combines both physical and social aspects of vulnerability, it sits at the intersection of the different models and theories used to study vulnerability. As such, it allows a more holistic understanding of vulnerability. Another reason for adopting this model is its focus on a specific geographic domain, which fits the purpose of this study that addresses a specific local area: the coastal area of north Lebanon. This approach will highlight the exceptional aspects of each area studied within the context of an overarching model. Third, the model recognizes the dynamic nature of vulnerability, and how small changes in its constituents can produce wider changes in place vulnerability. In addition, this model regards people as active participants within the vulnerability process with its emphasis on the importance of mitigation. Finally, Cutter’s model encompasses a wide array of factors in providing an overview of vulnerability. It


258

involves quantitative variables, such as age, education level, and gender, while also focusing on factors that are hard to assess and analyze using quantitative approaches. This necessitates the use of both quantitative and qualitative methods that lead to a better understanding of the topic being studied.

While both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in studying the vulnerability of place, we put a greater focus on qualitative approaches due to several reasons such as time pressure, a lack of local-level quantitative data, and an inability to quantify some of the variables. Variables and indicators of biophysical and social vulnerability were selected that fitted the context of the study area as well as the context of armed conflict. In terms of biophysical vulnerability, the variables refer mainly to exposure, such as location, onset, intensity, and frequency of armed conflict, as well as the proximity of the area to an armed conflict. For social vulnerability, the variables used included age, gender, education level, main economic sectors, income inequality, entitlement to land or resources, infrastructure quality, information assets, material assets, type of social problems in the area, level of preparedness for disasters, presence of emergency plans, and institutional capacity to deal with disasters. Data Collection and Analysis

We used both qualitative and quantitative methods to fulfill the objective of the study through document analysis, structured interviews with key informants from the 24 cities and villages in the targeted area, in-depth interviews with various stakeholders, and the distribution of 500 questionnaires among citizens in the study area. In these various ways, we assessed place vulnerability in the coastal area of north Lebanon.

As a first step, we carried out a documents analysis. Various kinds of documents such as accessible UN, World Bank, and UNRWA reports, NGO reports, and previous studies were identified through internet searches, visits and contacts with official institutions such as the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, High Relief Committee, Ministry of Social Affairs, the Al Fayhaa Union, and the Council for Development and Reconstruction. This step aimed to collect information regarding the major impacts, particularly environmental ones, of the four recent episodes of armed conflict on the communities of the coastal area of Lebanon, as well as the socioeconomic conditions present in the cities and villages of the study area. We carried out structured interviews with key informants, mainly with heads of the 24 cities and villages, or their representatives, within the study area. The aim here was to collect information about the constitution and characteristics of each city or village as well as environmental, social, economic, and political factors that can affect vulnerability in these areas. In addition, data regarding damage, and particularly environmental damage, caused by the various episodes of armed conflict were collected. In addition, we held in-depth interviews with a range of stakeholders encompassing representatives of institutions that were involved in post-conflict interventions such as United Nations Development Programme, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Social Affairs, and Ministry of Agriculture. Representatives from Non-Governmental Organizations present in the study area, such as the Safadi Foundation, René Moawad Foundation, and World Vision were also interviewed. Data gathered from these interviews concentrated on the type of damage, particularly environmental damage in the area, the communities and groups within the communities who were particularly affected and their characteristics, the general socioeconomic conditions of the communities, and the interventions and initiatives carried out following each of the episodes of armed conflict, and especially the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War and the 2007 Nahr el Bared Clashes, which had the most severe impacts on the area. According to the data collected, farmers and fishermen were among the groups most vulnerable to environmental damage in the studied area. Following this, several interviews were held with farmers and fishermen in the study area to know more about the type of damage they suffered as a result of the conflicts, their general


259

socioeconomic situation, the problems that they faced daily, and the way in which the different episodes of conflict affected their lives. The final step in the data collection process involved a survey of citizens in the area that aimed to measure variables that were difficult to assess from secondary literature and interviews, such as age, family size, education level, occupation, income per capita, membership of any organization or group, entitlement to land or resources (such as land and home ownership), informational assets (such as number of people connected to the internet and landlines, and the number of people with a mobile number and television), and material assets (such as type of lighting, sources of water, and type of health services). A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed proportionally among the citizens in each of the five areas. The sample size was calculated using the formula 𝑛 = 𝑁

1+𝑁(𝑒)2 (Israel, 1992, p.4); where n is equal to the sample size, N to the population size,

and e to the level of precision which is equal to 10% for each region and 5% for the entire study area in our case. After calculating the number of questionnaires to be completed in each area, we determined the number of questionnaires to be returned in each village or city based on the population of each village or city as a proportion of the total population of each area. The participants were chosen based on systematic random sampling. We chose this approach for two main reasons. The first being the lack of official statistical reports providing detailed information about age, gender, education, etc. at the local level. The second was the complex nature of the population in Lebanon in general, and in the north in particular, which is characterized by diverse religious, political, and ideological affiliations. In addition, it is argued that when participants are randomly chosen, the probability of any one individual being involved is exactly equal to the probability of including any other individual and hence the random sample is most representative of the total population of the area under study (Alreck and Settle, 2004, p.71). Before distributing the survey, we carried out a pilot test for acceptability and accuracy, and subsequently adjusted the questionnaire as required. In the data analysis, quantitative data from the survey were used to develop a social vulnerability index using Microsoft Excel, and the qualitative data were analyzed using NVivo 10 software. The data analysis focused on uncovering manifestations and features of place vulnerability in the studied area. Results and Discussion

The results showed variations in place vulnerability among the five geographic areas of the study area. We will first present and discuss the results obtained for biophysical vulnerability. We follow with the results and discussion on social vulnerability. The results for biophysical and social vulnerability are then combined and integrated into the hazards-of-place model to produce place vulnerability. Biophysical vulnerability

In this paper, biophysical vulnerability is assessed in terms of exposure. The variables used included proximity to the source of threat, probability or frequency of an event, its magnitude, duration, and spatial impact. The coastal area of north Lebanon has been exposed to four major episodes of armed conflict that are considered to have had severe impacts on the area. The various episodes of armed conflict differed in terms of nature, magnitude, and scale. The definition of armed conflict used here is adopted from the Uppsala Conflict Data Project (UCDP) as ‘a contested incompatibility that concerns government or territory or both where the use of armed conflict force between two parties results in at least 25 battle-related deaths. Of these two parties, at least one has to be the government of a state’ (Gleditsch, 2002, p.619). The 1982 Israel Invasion was on a national scale. It started on June 6, 1982 and lasted 11 months and 11 days. This conflict is not viewed as a state-based conflict by UCDP since the invasion targeted the Palestinian Liberation Organization and not the Lebanese government (UCDP, 2013a). The 2006 Israel-Lebanon War is considered as an interstate


260

conflict between the states of Israel and of Lebanon. The war started on July 12, 2006 and lasted 31 days. Most of the coastal area of north Lebanon was targeted in some way by this conflict (UCDP, 2013a). The Nahr el Bared Clashes in 2007 were located in Nahr el Bared Camp, a Palestine refugee camp located in the coastal area of north Lebanon within the municipal boundaries of Bhannine and El Mhmara in the area of Akkar. The camp was established for Palestinians fleeing the Arab-Israeli War in 1948 (UNRWA, 2008). The clashes started on May 20, 2007 and lasted for 105 days. According to the Uppsala Conflict Data Project (UCDP), the Nahr el Bared Clashes are not recorded as a state-based armed conflict since the conflict does not fulfil the criteria for such (UCDP, 2013b). The clashes are categorized as an insurgency. The 2008 Tripoli Clashes are considered as internal since they concerned two neighborhoods located in Tripoli. The clashes started on May 7, 2008 and lasted for five months. Clashes in Tripoli have increased recently as a spillover from the war in Syria but these events are too recent to be included in this research.

Proximity to armed conflict is seen as an important variable of physical vulnerability. Even though the 2007 Nahr el Bared Clashes were focused on the Nahr el Bared Camp, adjacent municipalities were severely affected, in particular the six municipalities surrounding the camp: Bhannine, El Mhamra, Bebnine–Abde, Der Amar, Menieh, and Beddawi. It was also reported that other nearby municipalities, such as Qobbet Chamra and Klayaat, were also targeted during the clashes. Similarly, the 2008 Tripoli Clashes had direct impacts not only on Tripoli but also on surrounding municipalities such as Beddawi. Thus, areas in proximity to armed conflicts incur increased physical vulnerability to environmental damage caused by the armed conflict. The frequency and intensity of armed conflict may also have an influence on physical vulnerability. In this paper, frequency refers to the number of armed conflict events in an affected area and intensity refers to the nature of the environmental damage in the affected areas. The coastal municipalities of Akkar and Menieh were the most affected in terms of frequency and intensity. The seven coastal municipalities of Akkar area (Arida, Cheikh Zennad, Tal Hayat, Klayaat, Qobbet Chamra, Bebnine-Abde, and El Mhamra) and the four municipalities of Menieh (Bhannine, Menieh, Der Amar, and Beddawi) were exposed to all four episodes of armed conflict. In addition, these areas were severely impacted upon by the various events, particularly the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War and the 2007 Nahr el Bared Clashes. The coastal municipalities of Akkar and Menieh areas suffered both direct and indirect environmental impacts. Direct impacts included an oil spill resulting from the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War, infrastructure and building damage resulting from both the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War and the 2007 Nahr el Bared Clashes, and land degradation resulting from the 2007 Nahr el Bared Clashes. The Iraqi Petroleum Company located in Beddawi municipality in Menieh area was damaged during the 1982 Israel Invasion causing severe environmental impacts. The various indirect impacts included population displacement and severe impacts on agriculture and fisheries as a result of the 1982 Israel Invasion, the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War, the 2007 Nahr el Bared Clashes, and the 2008 Tripoli Clashes. Indirect impacts were greater than the direct impacts in Akkar and Menieh since agriculture and fisheries are the most important sectors in these areas alongside trade. Fishermen and farmers are among the most vulnerable and poorest families, particularly in Akkar and Menieh areas which themselves are considered as the poorest and most deprived areas in Lebanon (Hanafi, 2008; Mouchref, 2008). Municipalities in Koura and Batroun areas have been the least affected in terms of frequency and intensity. Koura area includes three municipalities that have a coastline (Ras Maska, Kelhat, and Anfeh) and Batroun area includes seven coastal municipalities (Chekka, El Hery, Hamat, Selaata, Koubba, Batroun, and Kfaraabida). In terms of frequency, Koura and Batroun areas were exposed to two of the four armed conflicts: the 1982 Israel Invasion and the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War. In terms of intensity, environmental damage was minor and not all municipalities were subjected to damage. For instance, a displacement of population as a result of the 1982 Israel Invasion was only recorded in the


261

city of Batroun. The oil spill during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War affected most of the municipalities, and a bridge was damaged in Kfaraabida. In addition, the tourism sector was impacted upon in Batroun and El Hery although the impacts were short term. The Tripoli area is made up of the municipalities of Tripoli, El Mina, and Qalamoun. The frequency and intensity of armed conflict differed among the municipalities of this area. The Tripoli municipality was exposed to four episodes of armed conflict whereas El Mina and Qalamoun municipalities were subjected to two episodes of armed conflict, the 1982 Israel Invasion and the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War. The intensity is considered to be medium. For the Tripoli municipality, the impacts include the oil spill during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War and population displacements during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War, during the 2007 Nahr el Bared Clashes, and during the 2008 Tripoli Clashes. The latter also caused infrastructural damage in the neighborhoods where the clashes occurred. In El Mina and Qalamoun, the impacts included harm to the fishery and tourism sectors and population displacement as a result of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War. However, the fishery and tourism sectors are not the most important sectors in these areas. Thus, the combination of the different variables, encompassing location, nature, onset, frequency, intensity, and proximity to armed conflict, reveals variation in biophysical vulnerability along the coastal area of north Lebanon. The results indicate that Akkar and Menieh areas have the highest level of biophysical vulnerability, Tripoli area has a medium level of vulnerability, and Koura and Batroun areas have low levels of biophysical vulnerability. Social Vulnerability

In order to assess social vulnerability, a social vulnerability index was calculated for each of the five areas using the standardization technique (Briguglio, 1995; Kaly et al., 1999; St. Bernard G., 2007) also known as Min Max rescaling (Yoon, 2012). The variables included in the index were age, number of household members, education, access to information (Internet subscription, mobile subscription, landline subscription, and television ownership), material assets (home and land ownership), access to public services (access to water, electricity, and health insurance), occupation, income, and organization membership. The vulnerability for each variable in the dataset was calculated using the formula V = (X – Xmin)/(Xmax – Xmin), where V is the degree of vulnerability arising from the variable for each area, X is the value of the variable included in the vulnerability index for each area, and Xmax and Xmin are the maximum and minimum values of the variable across all five areas. This calculation results in a score between 0 and 1. This calculation was performed for each variable to be included in the index, and then an average of all the V's was calculated to give ‘an index’ (again between 0 and 1). The index was calculated for each of the five areas (Akkar, Menieh, Tripoli, Koura, Batroun). They could then be ranked, with a higher score indicating a lower vulnerability.

The results (Table 1) showed that communities in Akkar area were the most vulnerable of those within the study area followed by those in Tripoli area. The coastal communities in Batroun area show the lowest levels of social vulnerability, with Menieh and Koura areas showing medium levels of social vulnerability.

Table 1: Social Vulnerability Index for each of the five areas of the coastal area of north Lebanon Area Batroun Koura Tripoli Menieh Akkar Social Vulnerability Index 0.609333 0.537603 0.434674 0.522693 0.377524

The fact that the communities in Akkar area show the highest level of vulnerability

was also supported in the structured and in-depth interviews as well as in the secondary literature. Akkar area has been classified as one of the most deprived areas in Lebanon (Hanafi, 2008; Mouchref, 2008; Das and Davidson, 2011). The existing situation of deprivation in Akkar area results from a combination of various reasons. A full examination of these reasons is beyond the scope of this paper although we do discuss the most important


262

reasons. The foremost characteristic of this area was the persistence of a feudal system until the early 1970s, and this had a major influence on the socioeconomic situation in the area. A ruling elite of large estate landowners used to control powerless laborers and residents who used to work as sharecroppers on the feudal lands. The feudal nature of the society has now been replaced by a structure based on wealthy and powerful families. In addition, Akkar area reveals all the typical characteristics of poor and marginalized rural communities, with poor infrastructure and low quality services in addition to other features such as limited sources of income and inadequate support from government and civil society (Mouchref, 2008). This situation is due to the centralized system operating in the country where most of the economic and development projects have historically been focused on Beirut, with the peripheral areas being marginalized leading to unequal growth between the different areas of the country. This fact was emphasized during the interviews and survey, with most participants reporting that they felt neglected by the Lebanese government and marginalized from the rest of the country. Another major reason for this finding is the dependence of communities in the Akkar and Menieh areas on natural resources, with agriculture and fisheries being major economic sectors for income generation. The findings are in line with the literature on vulnerability of place as covered by Cutter et al. (2003) who explain that environmental change - resulting from various episodes of armed conflict in our case - can result in a form of economic vulnerability for areas that rely on one economic sector for income generation, especially when that involves natural resources. This is particularly evident in the areas of Akkar and Menieh that heavily depend on agriculture, fishing, and trade. Fishermen and farmers are among the most vulnerable and poorest families in these areas and felt the largest impacts that resulted from the episodes of armed conflict (FAO, 2006; Mouchref, 2008). For example, as a result of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War and the 2007 Nahr el Bared Clashes, fishermen along the coastal area of north Lebanon, and in particular in these two areas, lost their only source of income as they were unable to go to sea during the periods of conflict (FAO, 2006; UNDP, 2007; World Bank, 2007; Hanafi, 2008; Mouchref, 2008). Farmers in these areas experienced similar impacts. The 2006 Israel-Lebanon War and its aftermath caused large losses due to difficult access to agricultural lands, which made harvesting impossible and led to the degradation of crops, obstructions to the transportation of agricultural products and monopoly control of prices (FAO, 2006; Mouchref, 2008). The Nahr el Bared Clashes in 2007 had a more direct and severe impact on the farmers in this area. Agricultural lands, greenhouses, and roads were severely damaged, and farmers were unable to reach the fields resulting in crop deterioration. Transportation of products to the market was also hampered by the fighting. As a consequence, farmers lost their income from harvests for two successive years and found themselves in a downward spiral of debt (Mouchref, 2008). It is important to also mention that fishermen and farmers in these areas also suffer from socioeconomic problems that frequently place them in a cycle of poverty and debt. For example, they often suffer from natural disasters during winter which can result in losses in their only source of livelihood, leading to other problems such as difficulties in accessing medical care, low income, poverty, and lack of access to any training opportunities that might exist.

Further, the results also show that the areas with the lowest social vulnerability indices (Akkar, Menieh, and Tripoli) are showing increasing levels of social and economic problems such as violence, drugs, unemployment, robberies, child labor, schools drop-outs, poverty, and women’s disempowerment. These problems in turn can increase a community’s vulnerability and threaten human security. In addition to the social sensitivity of these areas, the results showed a low level of coping capacity in all the five areas studied. Variables used to assess the coping capacity included perceptions regarding the level of preparedness for disasters, the presence of emergency plans, and the institutional capacity to deal with disasters. During the interviews, the heads or their representatives of the municipalities were asked about their perceptions of their institutional capacity to deal rapidly with the impact of a


263

disaster, a violent conflict in this case, on affected environmental resources. Responses revealed a very limited or weak institutional capacity in all the five areas. According to local leaders and survey participants, the municipalities of Menieh and Batroun require expertise, personnel, and equipment. Most of the heads and their representatives noted that they suffer from a lack of financial budget and from government negligence. Particularly in Akkar and Menieh, they are exposed to and affected by natural disasters and armed conflict. When asked about their level of preparedness for disasters in general and for conflicts in particular, all the areas’ leaders mentioned that there was no preparation to cope with armed conflict. However, several municipalities, mainly those where agriculture was a major economic sector, recorded a higher level of preparedness for natural disasters, especially in winter. In terms of the existence of emergency plans, the interviews revealed that there were no emergency plans in Akkar, Menieh, Koura, or Batroun. According to the municipalities of Batroun area, it is the government’s responsibility to provide emergency plans and not the municipalities. Municipalities from Menieh area noted that the lack of a financial budget and assistance were important reasons for not being prepared for disasters and for not having any plans. The findings show a low level of coping capacity, mainly due to the negligence and marginalization of these areas by the government, which, in turn, can increase people vulnerability. From Risk to Place Vulnerability

Based on the hazard of place model, combining the results for physical and social vulnerabilities resulted in differences in place vulnerability among the five areas of the coastal area of north Lebanon as follows: Akkar and Menieh show the highest levels of vulnerability followed by Tripoli, with Koura and Batroun showing lower levels of vulnerability (Figure 3). According to the model, vulnerability of place provides a feedback loop to the inputs of risk and mitigation, enabling an increase or decrease in both risk and mitigation, resulting in either increasing or decreasing vulnerability (Cutter, 1996). This argument is supported by our results, where areas such as Akkar, Menieh, and Tripoli that experienced an increase in, or several episodes of, armed conflict showed an increase in vulnerability. In addition, these areas perceived a lower level of mitigation and preparedness for risks than the other areas. As such, these areas need to increase their mitigation processes in order to decrease their vulnerability. However, other areas such as Koura and Batroun who have experienced fewer episodes of armed conflict showed a lower level of vulnerability than other areas but also low levels of mitigation. This was because the areas of north Lebanon are in general neglected by the government due to the centralized system in the country, an approach that also limits the municipalities’ performance in many cases due to some imposed restrictions. Another aspect that hampers the progress and development of projects is the limited financial budgets allocated to the municipalities. Therefore, most municipalities have to rely on private or international funding agencies for development projects and mitigation processes. It is also important to observe that the model suggests that a higher level of place vulnerability can increase the risk of armed conflict. This means that areas such as Akkar, Menieh, and Tripoli have a greater risk of armed conflict than other areas. An examination of recent political events in these areas, which show a large potential for armed conflict, supports this with the recent clashes in Tripoli being a good example. However, vulnerability is not the only trigger for armed conflict. While a high level of vulnerability can create a situation that increases the risk of armed conflict, other reasons can also cause conflicts or potential conflicts such as the political situation in the country or spillovers from the war in Syria. However, in this paper we do not study the reasons and factors that can trigger armed conflict.


264

Figure 3. Place vulnerability in the coastal area of north Lebanon. Conclusion

This paper has assessed and identified the spatial variation in communities’ vulnerabilities to environment damage caused by various episodes of armed conflict within five coastal areas of north Lebanon. Results showed that the variation in vulnerability does not only result from exposure to armed conflict but also from existing conditions including the sensitivity and coping capacity of the communities. The areas of Akkar and Menieh showed the highest levels of vulnerability followed by Tripoli. In comparison, Koura and Batroun showed lower levels of vulnerability. The model used was able to show the dynamic and complex nature of place vulnerability and the ways in which it can vary within a certain geographic area. The coastal area of north Lebanon is good illustration of how vulnerability can vary within a relatively small area, hence highlighting the uniqueness and exceptional circumstances of the areas under study. The findings validate the literature on vulnerability of place that addresses human vulnerability in a specific geographic area through combining the physical and social aspects of vulnerability, and hence emphasizes the factors and aspects that can influence vulnerability and which are unique to each area. References: Adger Neil W. (1999) Social Vulnerability to Climate Change and Extremes in Coastal Vietnam. World Development, 27(2): 249-269. Adger, Neil W. (2006) Vulnerability. Global Environmental Change, 16: 268-281. Alexander, D. (1993) Natural Disasters. London: UCL Press. Alreck, P. and Settle, R. (2004) Survey Research Handbook. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill. Bankoff Greg, Frerks Georg, and Hilhorst Dorothea (2004) Mapping Vulnerability: Disasters, Development, and People. Earthscan, UK and USA. Bertrand, D. and Naaim, M. and Brun M. (2010) Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences Physical vulnerability of reinforced concrete buildings impacted by snow avalanches. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 10: 1531–1545 (Published by Copernicus GmbH on behalf of the European Geosciences Union). Birkmann J (2006) Measuring Vulnerability to Natural Hazards: Towards Disaster Resilient societies. United Nations University Press. Bohle Hans G., Downing Thomas E., and Watts Michael J. (1994) Climate change and social vulnerability: Toward a sociology and geography of food insecurity. Global Environmental Change 1994 4 (1) 37-48.


265

Boruff, B.J.; Emrich, C., and Cutter, S.L. (2005) Erosion hazard vulnerability of US coastal counties. Journal of Coastal Reaearch. 21(5), 932-942. West Palm Beach (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Briguglio, Lino (1995) Small Island Developing States and Their Economic Vulnerabilities. World Development, 23(9), pp. 1615-1632. Central Administration of Statistics (2007) National Survey of Households Living Conditions. Report of families living conditions. Lebanon: Chemaly and Chemaly. Clark George E., Moser Susanne C., Ratick Samuel J., Dow Kirstin, Meyer William B., Emani Srinivas, Jin Weigen, Kasperson Jeanne X., Kasperson Roger E. and Schwartz Harry E. (1998) Assessing the Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Extreme Storms: The Case of Revere, MA., USA. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 3(1): 59-82. Cross, John A. (2001) Megacities and small towns: different perspectives on hazard vulnerability. Environmental Hazards, 3: 63-80. Cutter, Susan L. (1996) Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards. Progress in Human Geography, 20(4): 529-539. Cutter Susan L., Mitchell Jerry, T., Scott Michael S. (2000) Revealing the Vulnerability of People and Places: A Case Study of Georgetown Country, South Carolina. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 90(4): 713-737. Cutter Susan L., Boruff Bryan J., and Shirley Lynn W. (2003) Social Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards. Social Science Quarterly, 84(2): 242-261. Cutter Susan L., Barnes Lindsey, Berry Melissa, Burton Christopher, Evans Elijah, Tate Eric, Webb Jennifer (2008) A place-based model for understanding community resilience to natural disasters. Global Environmental Change, 18: 598–606. Das, R. and Davidson, J., with Fleming-Farrell, N. ed. (2011). Profiles of Poverty: The human face of poverty in Lebanon. Lebanon: Dar Manhal al Hayat. Douglas J. (2007) Physical vulnerability modelling in natural hazard risk assessment. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 7: 283–288 (Published by Copernicus GmbH on behalf of the European Geosciences Union). Dunno, Carly Hertz (2011) Measuring Social Vulnerability to Natural Hazards: An Examination of the United States Virgin Islands. PhD thesis, directed by Dr. Rick Bunch, Faculty of The Graduate School, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, pages 1-207. El-Kak, M. H. (2000) Towards a Regionally Balanced Development. In: UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), Conference on Linking Economic Growth and Social Development in Lebanon. Beirut, Lebanon 11–13 January 2000. Beirut: UNDP, Conference Proceedings. FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) (2006) Lebanon: Damage and Early Recovery Needs Assessment of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Italy: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Flint Courtney G. and Luloff A.E. (2005) Natural Resource-Based Communities, Risk, and Disaster: An Intersection of Theories. Society and Natural Resources, 18:399–412. Füssel Hans-Martin (2006) Vulnerability: A Generally Applicable Conceptual Framework for Climate Change Research. Global Environmental Change, 17: 155–167. Gallopín, Gilberto C. (2006) Linkages between vulnerability, resilience, and adaptive capacity. Global Environmental Change, 16: 293-303. Gleditsch, Nils Petter; Wallensteen Peter, Eriksson Mikael, Sollenberg Margareta & Strand Håvard (2002) Armed Conflict 1946-2001: A New Dataset. Journal of Peace Research 39(5): Hanafi, S. (2008) Nahr El Bared Refugee Camp Crisis (Lebanon): Socioeconomic Impact Assessments and Recovery Plan for Areas Surrounding Nahr Al Bared Refugee Camp – Final Report Submitted to World Bank. Institute of the Environment (2007) Integrated Management of East Mediterranean Coastlines: Assessment Report. Lebanon: University of Balamand.


266

Israel, G.D. (1992) Determining Sample Size (Fact Sheet PEOD-6). United States: University Kaly U., Briguglio L., McLeod H., Schmall S., Pratt C. and Pal R. (1999) Environmental Vulnerability Index (EVI) to summarise national environmental vulnerability profiles. SOPAC Technical Report 275. 66p.; 3 annexes, 2 figures, 1 table. ISBN 982-207-009-8. Kelly P. M. and Adger W. N. (2000) Theory and Practice in Assessing Vulnerability to Climate Change and Facilitating Adaptation. Climatic Change, 47(4): 325–352. Lewis James and Kelman Llan (2010) Places, people and perpetuity: Community capacities in ecologies of catastrophe. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 9 (2): Luers, Amy L. (2005) The surface of vulnerability: An analytical framework for examining environmental change. Global Environmental Change, 15: 214-223. Mitri, G., Nader, M., Van Der Molen, I. and Lovett, J. (2012) Monitoring Land Cover Changes on the Coastal Zone of North Lebanon Using Object-Based Image Analysis of Multi-temporal LANDSAT Images. In: the 1st EARSeL Workshop on Temporal Analysis of Satellite Images. Mykonos, Greece 23–25 May 2012. Greece: Conference Proceedings. Mouchref, Aicha (2008) Forgotten Akkar: Socio-Economic Reality of the Akkar Region. MADA Association. Quarantelli, E.L. (1992) Urban vulnerability and technological hazards in developing societies. Article 236. Newark, DE: University of Delaware, Disaster Research Center. Schröter Dagmar, Polsky Colin, and Patt Anthony G. (2005) Assessing Vulnerabilities to the effects of Global Change: An Eight Step Approach. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 10: 573–596. St. Bernard G (2007) Measuring social vulnerability in Caribbean States, Paper presented at 8th SALISES Annual Conference Crisis, Chaos and Change: Caribbean Development Challenges in the 21st Century, Trinidad and Tobago, 26-28 March 2007. Tate, Eric (2012) Social vulnerability indices: a comparative assessment using uncertainty and sensitivity analysis. Nat Hazards, 63: 325–347. UCDP (Uppsala Conflict Data Program) (2013a) Coding comments for Lebanon, 1975-1990. Sweden: Uppsala University, UCDP Conflict Encyclopedia: www.ucdp.uu.se/database (http://www.ucdp.uu.se/gpdatabase/info/Leb%202.pdf). UCDP (Uppsala Conflict Data Program) (2013b) Fatah al-Islam and the 2007 clashes. Sweden: Uppsala University, UCDP Conflict Encyclopedia: www.ucdp.uu.se/database (http://www.ucdp.uu.se/gpdatabase/info/Lebanon%201.pdf). UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) (2007) Lebanon Rapid Environmental Assessment for Greening Recovery, Reconstruction and Reform 2006. Lebanon: Earth Link and Advanced Resources Development S.A.R.L. Uzielli, Marco and Nadim, Farrokh and Lacasse, Suzanne and Kaynia, Amir M. (2008) A conceptual framework for quantitative estimation of physical vulnerability to landslides. Engineering Geology, 102: 251-256. Volk, L. (2009) Martyrs at the Margins: The Politics of Neglect in Lebanon's Borderlands. Middle Eastern Studies, 45(2), pp.263-282. Wisner Ben, Blaikie Piers, Cannon Terry, and Davis Ian (2004) At Risk Second Edition: Natural hazards, people’s vulnerability and Disasters. Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, London World Bank (2007) Republic of Lebanon Economic Assessment of Environmental Degradation Due to July 2006 Hostilities. Report No. 39787-LB. Washington, DC: World Bank. Yoon D. K. (2012) Assessment of social vulnerability to natural disasters: a comparative study. Nat Hazards, 63: 823–843.


267

TRUST AND COOPERATION RELATIONS IN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT OF LEBANON

Nivine H. Abbas, PhD Candidate University of Twente, Netherlands/University of Balamand, Lebanon

Irna van der Molen (Coordinator at the Centre for Risk Management, Safety and Security)

University of Twente, Netherlands Manal R. Nader, Associate Prof.

Director of Institute of the Environment, University of Balamand, Lebanon Jon C. Lovett, Prof.

Chair in Global Challenges at the School of Geography, University of Leeds, UK

Abstract This paper investigates trust and cooperation in the context of environmental management in Lebanon. Literature already indicated increasing environmental problems in this area that suffered from repeated episodes of armed conflict. The Lebanese government has been faced by many difficulties to address these environmental challenges. While ‘trust’ and ‘cooperation’ are referred to in literature as two of these problems, these are not systematically studied in the case of Lebanon. We assume that there is a relation between trust and cooperation. The more there is trust relations, the more there will be cooperation and vice versa. The findings are based on structured and semi-structured interviews with public and private stakeholders, survey with citizens in northern Lebanon, and collection of secondary sources. Results show that citizens have lack of trust in the stakeholders of the public sector at national level (96.1%) and there is low level of citizens’ participation in the environmental initiatives. Furthermore, stakeholders in the public and private sector indicate that cooperation between public and private sectors in addressing environmental problems is relatively weak and that trust is one of the factors that are leading to this. At the same time, however, literature and primary data indicate that some of these stakeholders involved successfully circumvent environmental regulations by using “wasta” that is their relations of trust and cooperation with public authorities. In Lebanon, we therefore have to distinguish between trust and cooperation as a means to hinder environmental management, and trust and cooperation as a means to enhance environmental management.

Keywords: Trust, cooperation, environmental management, Lebanon Introduction

Trust between stakeholders is a necessary condition to overcome disagreements in environmental management (Tennberg, 2007) and there is a strong link between trust and cooperation (Ferrin et al., 2007; Lundin, 2007; Edelenbos and Erik-Hans, 2007). Moreover, trust is believed to explain why participants in different situations choose to cooperate or not (Ostrom and Walker, 2003).

On-going conflicts North-Lebanon since 1975 have caused social fragmentation (Bazzi, 2007), weak institutions and increased corruption (Leenders, 2013). Legal violations and corruption in Lebanon are considered to have resulted in a low level of trust among citizens in government and politicians (Haddad 2002). Environmental protection is reported to


268

be weak in Lebanon generally (IoE, 2009; Sarraf, Larsen, and Owaygen, 2004), with environmental degradation the result of political and institutional weaknesses (IoE, 2007a) and armed conflicts (Maler, 1990 in Takshe el al., 2010). Repeated disruption of public governance by conflict in Lebanon has prevented proper decision-making; development of environmental legislation and regulations (Bazzi, 2009; Leenders, 2012); enforcement of existing of environmental regulations; and formulation and implementation of master plans. Furthermore, the repeated nature of conflict has hampered continuity in developing, implementing or even managing environmental programs (IoE, 2009; MOE/UNDP/ECODIT, 2011); and has discouraged cooperation among public institutions involved with environmental protection (Habib, 2012). As a result, most, if not all, the Lebanese districts, lack effective implementation of environmental management plans and initiatives (IoE, 2009). This not only negatively affects the environment, but also public health and economic development (Sarraf, Larsen, and Owaygen, 2004; World Bank, 2007).

Environmental management is defined here as the development of strategies or activities with the goal ‘to maintain and improve the state of an environmental resource affected by human activities’ (Pahl-Wostl, 2007, p. 561). Three broad categories of stakeholders are involved in the environmental management process in Lebanon, whether directly or indirectly: stakeholders in the public sector, stakeholders in the private sector and citizens. The environmental management process is primarily in public sector hands both at a national level (policy makers, ministries, government and its institutes) and at the local level (mainly the municipality). Nevertheless, many public institutions at both local and national levels are administratively weak and are not able to implement developmental projects or provide adequate services to the citizens (Atallah 2012). In addition, and significantly, the private sector, which is considered a secondary stakeholder, also plays an important role in environmental planning and management in Lebanon (IoE, 2007a). The private sector is defined broadly to include private companies, academic or research centers, and experts on the basis that they are being paid for their services. Private companies work as consultants for the public sector, as contractors, or as providers of specific services, such as collecting solid waste or water supply. The public and private sector are closely related and, to some extent, interwoven. These two sectors cooperate in various forms: in project implementation, through advisory work or consultation, through contracting or through service provision. Last but not least, citizens play a crucial role in the environmental management process by complying with laws and regulations, by volunteering in environmental initiatives, or by resisting new plans.

The main objective of this article is to study the trust and cooperation relations between citizens, and stakeholders from both the public and private sectors, who are involved in environmental management in Lebanon. There are two assumptions in this article. The first is that lack of trust of citizens in the public or private sector (in general) leads to lack of citizens’ participation in environmental initiatives or in the complying of citizens with the environmental laws. By initiatives we mean simple activities such as volunteering in collecting garbage from the streets or the seashore. The second is that lack of trust between the stakeholders in the public and private sector results in a lower level of cooperation in environmental management initiatives. This hampers the progress of planned projects, and sometimes results in the termination of some projects (IoE, 2007a). The research also aims to identify the reasons behind the lack of trust and cooperation.

A survey was completed by 499 citizens of the north Lebanon and a total of 49 key informant interviews were conducted with stakeholders from the public and private sector involved in the environmental management process in Lebanon. The paper is organized as follows. The next section (2) outlines general theories of trust and it relation to cooperation. The methodology is explained in Section (3). Section (4) presents and discusses the results which were identified by citizens, and stakeholders in the public and private sector. The final section of this paper draws conclusions and recommendations.


269

Theoretical background Definition of trust

Trust is a complex concept and it has been defined differently by various scholars (Luhmann, 1979; Rousseau et al., 1998; Currall and Judge, 1995; Kiyonari et al., 2006). This study adopted as a conceptual definition of trust that could be applied for various actors mainly the citizens, stakeholders in the public and private sectors: ‘To trust another person /organization to produce a beneficial event X [add:] or to provide a service, an individual/organization must have confidence that the other individual/organization has ability and intention to produce it’ (adjusted from Deutsch, 1960, p. 125). Although this definition may seem to be outdated, we found it valid and applicable to stakeholders involved in the environmental management process in Lebanon.

The research is positioned within Social Exchange Theory (Axelrod, 1984; Deutsch, 1958). According to this theory, citizens are willing to comply with rules and regulations, to adjust their behavior, if and when they have confidence in private or public sector organizations to be able to produce a beneficial event or to provide beneficial services. According to this research one of the means to have confidence is to have more trust relations. Similarly, actors in the private sector are willing to invest in cooperation with organizations in the public sector, or with actors in the political domain, when they expect this relation will be beneficial on the short, medium or long term. Trust and cooperation

Trust, at various levels, enhances cooperation (Ferrin, Bligh and Kohles, 2007; Lundin, 2007; Edelenbos and Erik-Hans, 2007; Abbas et al., 2013b; Cvetkovich and Winter, 2003). One of the reasons for that is that parties recognize and feel bound by certain values such as fairness, cooperation, and reciprocity; this will encourage these parties to have more cooperation among each other (Koeszegi, 2004). A party who has earned another’s trust will feel bound to that trust and will work to honor it and as a result will behave cooperatively rather than competitively toward the other (Ferrin, Bligh and Kohles, 2007).

This research argues that, in order to improve environmental management in Lebanon, it is vital to work on having stronger trust relations between the stakeholders involved; thus leading to more cooperation and reciprocity. Moreover, as observed by Ferrin et al., development of mutual trust perceptions can be based on cooperative behavior. These behaviors are said to play a significant intervening role by transmitting one party’s trust perceptions to another (Ferrin, Bligh and Kohles, 2008). According to Ferrin et al., there is clear evidence that cooperation ‘is a critical intervening variable in the development of mutual trust perceptions between individuals and groups’ (2008, p.171). ‘Wasta’ concept and its relation to trust: In Lebanon as in many other Middle Eastern societies, ‘cooperation’ has two faces: one that increases chances of successful implementation of policies and programs; and one that seems to attain the opposite. The cooperation between the stakeholders in public and private sector, between citizens and stakeholders in the public or private sector, takes also place through a practice that is referred to as ‘wasta’: an ‘implicit social contract, which obliges those within the group to provide assistance (favorable treatment) to others within the group’ (Barnett, Yandle and Naufal, 2013, p.2). Smith et al. describe it as ‘the process whereby one can achieve goals through links with key persons in positions of high status (2012, with reference to Cunningham and Sarayrah, 1993). Barnett et al. argue that, in the Middle East, ‘It [wasta] is deeply embedded in the fabric of these societies and visible in everything from the way in which governments interact with businesses to the way in which public policy is formulated’ (Barnett, Yandle and Naufal, 2013, p. 41). Similar to trust, wasta lowers the transaction costs and improves chances of successful cooperation – also when this


270

is counterproductive for environmental protection, for examples on quarry industry, or waste management and reconstruction (Leenders, 2012).

This paper distinguishes between the opportunity structures which are reflected by the trust and cooperation relationships positively affecting the environmental management, and ‘wasta’ which is based on trust and cooperation relations with public authorities, to successfully circumvent environmental regulations. In this paper, ‘opportunity structure’ means the framework of rules people are encouraged to follow in order to achieve what their culture considers to be success. According to Alsop and Heinsohn, and Ibrahim and Alkire, it refers to the institutional environment consisting of formal and informal contexts in which the actors function (2005 and 2007), often simultaneously. The next section will explain the methodology and methods used in this research. Methodology

The data gathered based on: 1) primary data from a survey completed by citizens and from interviews conducted with public and private sector’s stakeholders who are involved in the environmental management process in Lebanon; 2) secondary data from previous document mainly about the environmental problems in Lebanon. In this study in North Lebanon we invited stakeholders to comment on their trust and cooperation relations; and their willingness to volunteer in environmental initiatives, or to comply with environmental regulations. The reason for this ‘indirect’ approach is that testing of trust relations in an experimental setting, as explained in literature (references from psychology), combined with measures of cooperation (the type, duration, intensity and purpose of cooperation), in a hybrid and complex policy environment is unlikely to give clear results. Secondary data Documents analysis was carried out for the first step. Ministry of Environment reports, World Bank, and as well as previous studies such as IMAC were searched. This step aimed to collect information already existed on trust relations, environmental problems in Lebanon, and the role of trust and cooperation relation to environmental management in Lebanon. Survey The survey was administered to citizens of the northern coastline of Lebanon, which constitutes around 40% of the Lebanese coast (Mitri et al., 2012) (Figure 1), in the form of a questionnaire during mid-August to December 2011. The aim of this survey was to study the perception of citizens regarding trust relations between them and the public and private stakeholders involved in environmental management in Lebanon. A total of 499 questionnaires were completed, distributed proportionally to the population in each of the five main areas based on the sample size formula n =

𝑁1+𝑁(𝑒)2

(Israel ,1992); where n is the sample size, N is the population size, and e is the level of precision 10% in this case for each region and 5% for the entire study area. Most of the survey questions were in the form of a 5 point Likert scale from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). In the analysis phase, some of these 5 point scorings were converted into 2 categories (nominal scale), 0 (disagree) and 1 (agree) or 0 (No) and 1 (Yes). The remaining few questions in the survey were open. Some of the survey statements were negative and these were balanced by positive statements and some open questions.

The choice of participants assessed in the survey was based on systematic random sampling from each of the sub areas (K was chosen randomly). A pilot test was conducted before the main survey. The questionnaire was amended accordingly and adjusted for accuracy and simplicity for its final form. After completing the surveys, data entry was entered into an ACCESS spreadsheet and later transferred to the SPSS package.


271

Figure1. Map showing villages and cities in coastal North Lebanon.

The Interviews Most of the 49 interviews made were face to face, only few were made by email. The interviews were both structured and semi- structured interviews. In the structured interviews, first all the interviewees were asked the same questions and in the same order. The answers were in the form of rating scales mainly 5 point Likert from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). Sometimes in the analysis phase, these 5 point scorings were converted into 2 categories for example: 0 (disagree) and 1 (agree). These predetermined answer- rating scales increase the reliability across interviews and the objectivity of judging the interviewees responses (Campion, Pursell and Brown, 1988).

The structured interview was used to ensure that all the interviews were assessed accurately. To enhance consistency, the same interviewer was used in all interviews. All the questions asked in these interviews were to reveal to what extent the interviewees believe there is trust and cooperation between the various stakeholders involved in the environmental management process. The semi-structured interview was used to explore the perceptions of the interviewers and allows searching for more information and clarification of answers by asking open ended questions.

This research also made sure that all interviewees have shared a common vocabulary and meanings for the key words and all the questions were in the same wording and sequence for all the interviewees. This is important for the analysis phase, especially when comparing the perception of different interviewees on a complex issue like trust, which can have many meanings. A pilot test was conducted before the main interviews and some of the questions of these interviews were adjusted for accuracy and simplicity. From the interviewees that were contacted, only few interviews were not conducted due to refusal or lack of interest of the interviewees. In general, the data was collected by sectors, public then private, starting from September 2011 till December 2012. In the public sector, the main stakeholders interviewed were heads or representatives of heads of the 24 municipalities of the area covered; seven ministries related directly or indirectly with the environmental management in Lebanon; and three public institutes (only a few agreed to be interviewed). In the private sector, the main stakeholders interviewed were head or representatives of heads of six private companies, three academic and research centers, and six experts on different environmental issues (12 were contacted but only six accepted to be interviewed). The private companies included were mainly consultancy companies and those that provide services. Five interviews with industrial factories were


272

attempted, since it is believed that the industrial sector is having a negative impact on the environmental of the area (IoE, 2007a), but only one agreed to be interviewed. Private sector actors were generally not willing or able to participate in the interviews as most regarded the data they have as confidential. Results and Discussion Citizen perceptions of trust relations with stakeholders in the public sector

The results indicate that 96.1 % of the citizen respondents agree that there is lack of trust between citizens and public authorities involved in environmental management at national level in Lebanon. Also, 95.2% of the citizens stated that they are not satisfied with the government environmental management process (e.g. laws, decision making). This research agrees with Hetherington (1998) who state that satisfaction with the government can be linked to people’s expectations, and to what extent people perceive that the government is operating effectively; in other words to the political trust. When the citizens were asked if they have ever participated in an environmental initiative, 63.3% of them replied “No”. When they were asked in an open question to state the reasons for their lack of participation, lack of trust in decision makers and stakeholders who plan or get involved in these initiatives was frequently mentioned (Abbas et al. 2013a).

The result is in agreement with social exchange theory. Citizens’ lack of trust, and thus lack of confidence in the stakeholders of public sector, results in the lack of citizens’ participation in the environmental initiatives, or in the complying of citizens with environmental laws. Consequently, this negatively affects the environmental management process in Lebanon. In order to improve environmental management we need to investigate the underlying causes that are resulting in citizens’ lack of trust in the stakeholders of public sector; this will enhance the citizens’ cooperation in both environmental initiatives and in complying with laws. This is also considered to be the case in the relationship between trust and cooperation (Ferrin, Bligh and Kohles, 2007; Lundin, 2007; Edelenbos and Erik-Hans, 2007, Abbas et al. 2013a; Abbas et al. 2013b). The more citizens trust the institutions involved in environmental policy procedures and management, the more they are willing to cooperate and accept changes following implementation of environmental policies (Cvetkovich and Winter, 2003).

Citizens’ responses to statements in the survey also confirm this finding, especially in their answers to the following two statements: ‘The more you trust decision makers and stakeholders involved in the environmental management process, the more you (as citizen) are willing to comply with relevant laws and regulations’ and ‘For you as a citizens, the more you trust a stakeholder involved in an environmental management initiative, the more you are likely to cooperate in this initiative.’ Results indicate that citizens strongly agree that the more they have trust in the stakeholders or decision makers, the more they are likely to cooperate in the initiatives (99.2%) and are willing to comply with the laws and regulations (97.4%). Public and private stakeholders’ perceptions of trust and cooperation relations between stakeholders in the public and private sectors:

In the interview, the question: ‘From your experience, how can you evaluate cooperation between the stakeholders in the public and private sectors involved in the environmental management process?’ was asked of both the public and private interviewees. 23 out of 34 public stakeholders and 10 out of 15 private stakeholders perceive that there is a weak cooperation between the public and private stakeholders involved in the environmental management process in Lebanon. Results reveal that this weak cooperation between the main sectors involved in the environmental management process is negatively influencing trust relations; this idea is confirmed by Ostrom and Ferrin (2007) and Bligh and Kohles (2008). When the public and private interviewees were asked an open question why they believe there is a weak cooperation, the following reasons were given. According to public


273

sector stakeholders, ministry representatives stated that the main reasons behind improving and enhancing this cooperation are: weak administration, default in the state, lack of continuity in the cooperation process, lack of trust from private sector stakeholders in public sector stakeholders and, lack of budget and human resources in the ministry. Of the public institutes, only one of the interviewees answered this question and stated that the lack of agreement among the various stakeholders is making the cooperation weak. According to the stakeholders in the private sector, the main reasons for this weak cooperation between public and private stakeholders are: deficiency and weakness in municipality organization; lack of cooperation of the municipality with the requests and demands of private companies; lack of trust from private sector stakeholders in public sector stakeholders . Interviewees from academic and research centers mention the following reasons: no real environmental management process in Lebanon; lack of trust from private sector stakeholders of in public sector stakeholders; lack of expertise and human resources or financial resources among stakeholders in public sector makes work harder; and unwillingness of public sector stakeholders to cooperate with stakeholders in the private sector, even though stakeholders from private sector want this. For many experts one of the most reasons for weak cooperation is trust relations. Other reasons mentioned by some experts are: private agendas; the bureaucratic system; and lack of motivation among public sector stakeholders. Nevertheless, there is some cooperation through funding mechanisms and consultation, advisory services and networks (public/private sector).

Both public and private interviewees were asked if they agree that this cooperation between the stakeholders in the public and private sectors involved in the environmental management process in Lebanon is related to trust relations? The results show that 21 out of 34 of the public stakeholders and 9 out of the 15 private stakeholders agree that cooperation among public sector stakeholders is related to trust, a finding similar to other studies (Ferrin, Bligh and Kohles, 2007; Lundin, 2007; Edelenbos and Erik- Hans, 2007). When parties trust the other party they feel bound by a certain values such as cooperation and reciprocity, and thus these parties will be encouraged to have more cooperation with each other (koeszegi, 2004; Ferrin, Bligh and Kohles, 2007). The results presented here demonstrate that, based on the public and private stakeholders’ perspectives, having better trust relations between public and private stakeholders involved in the environmental management process is essential for having more cooperation among these stakeholders. This will enhance environmental management by having more successful decisions, developmental plans or environmental projects. There are two other answers from the public and private stakeholder interviews that confirm this idea. The first is to the question: ‘From your experience do you agree that the more we have trust, among the stakeholders in public and/or private sectors involved in the environmental management process, the more we will have cooperation between them? And the second question is: ‘If you have trust and cooperation among the stakeholders involved in decision making, then more and better decisions will be taken regarding the environmental management process in Lebanon’. In the answers, 34 out of 34 public and 14 out of 15 private interviewees said they agree with these two statements. Trust and cooperation relations that hinder the environmental management

Trust and cooperation relationships with certain public authorities can be used by some stakeholders to obstruct measures and institutions that could reduce environmental problems. Some of the ministry’ representatives stated that it is known that some Lebanese policemen benefit from lack of implementation of certain environmental laws. Some private sectors actors use their ‘wasta’, or even bribe policemen to obtain complicity with their lack of compliance with law. This illustrates how trust and cooperation can be used to obstruct


274

measures that could reduce environmental problems. This observation was also confirmed by other studies that mention the “wasta” concept and how it is deeply embedded in the fabric of many Middle Eastern societies, including Lebanon (Barnett, Yandle and Naufal, 2013). Negative manifestations of trust and cooperation in relation on the environmental management process also include examples such as solid waste management. For example, it is estimated that Beirut municipality can collect its own waste at about half the cost currently charged by the private companies (Antoun et al., 1998; Wakim, 1998).

Some private companies that deal with solid waste management in Lebanon use their trust and cooperation relationships with some Lebanese political leaders or public institutes to get agreements with government, or to renew initial agreements (Leenders, 2012). According to Michael al Murr, a previous interior minister, 70% of a certain company’s cost went in commission to top leaders in the government (Daily Star 21 July 2003 in Leenders, 2012). Sometimes these private companies also give the leaders a controlling stake in the companies (Leenders, 2012). In other words, private companies dealing with solid waste management trust the leaders, because of personal interest and financial benefit, to cooperate with them and assist them in taking certain agreements and contracts with the government. This was confirmed by a manger of a private company, who stated that politics goes very well with the garbage business you have to build trust and close relations with politicians and they want a service from you in return (Daily Star 13 April 1999 in Leenders, 2012). When citizens were asked their opinion about this issue, many agreed, saying that from their experience they have noticed that nowadays some of the citizens and private sector stakeholders use the “wasta” with their leaders to circumvent laws, including environmental laws. According to citizens’ perceptions, even public sectors stakeholders use “wasta” with public authorities in high positions to by-pass laws and regulations. It is important to mention that this research have no real evidence of this process, it is only reporting perceptions and supporting it by some literature. Hopefully this process will be studied further in the future by other researchers.

This finding illustrates that when discussing trust and its relation to environmental management in Lebanon, it is important to distinguish between the ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ relations of trust and cooperation. Conclusion

In summary, the results demonstrate that citizens have a lack of trust in public sector stakeholders at national level. Also, there is a low level of citizens’ participation in environmental initiatives in Lebanon. This research agrees with the social exchange theory and argues that lack of trust in public or private stakeholders is one of the reasons that lead to the lack of citizens’ participation in environmental initiatives, or to citizens complying with environmental laws. Most of the public and private sector interviewees state that there is weak cooperation between public sector stakeholders and private sector stakeholders involved in the environmental management process in Lebanon. This weak cooperation is perceived by both public and private participants to be related to trust relations. Other reasons also mentioned by the public and private sector interviewees that can explain this weak cooperation between public and private sector stakeholders involved in the environmental management process in Lebanon. For example, weak administration among public sector stakeholders, lack of budget, lack of human resources in public institutions, and lack of motivation among the stakeholders in the public sector.

Repeated conflict makes Lebanon a particularly interesting case study to investigate the role of trust on the environmental management. Academic studies have rarely mentioned the lack of trust although it is believed to be characteristic of interactions between various actors in Lebanese society (Ker Rault, 2009; Allen, 2011). Nevertheless information about lack of environmental protection and weak environmental management processes in Lebanon do exist (IoE, 2007a; Abi Saab, 2012; Sarraf, Larsen and Owaygen, 2004).


275

The results presented here demonstrate the link between trust and cooperation. Trust and cooperation relationships between the various stakeholders involved in the environmental management process in Lebanon are one of the factors that enhance the environmental management process. Although trust and cooperation is found to be weak, some findings also showed that this relation is used to hinder the environmental management; specifically when some stakeholders use the ‘wasta’ concept to effectively obstruct measures that could reduce environmental problems. This finding was also supported by other studies (e.g. Leenders, 2012; Wakim, 1998). This research stresses that when there is discussion of trust relations in the environmental management, we have to distinguish between trust and cooperation as a means to obstruct environmental management, and trust and cooperation as a means to enhance environmental management. Acknowledgments

The authors wish to express their appreciation to the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), WOTRO Science for Global Development for providing financial assistance to pursue the current work under the project ‘Conflict and Environment in North-Lebanon: A longitudinal study of environmental and socio-economic mitigation processes in conflict-affected areas’, grant number: W 01.65.318.00 . They would also like to thank all the citizens who completed the survey and all the public and private interviewees who provided us with the important primary data. The authors are grateful to the team at the IoE for the support provided to make this work possible. Special thanks are due to Dr. Husni Charif and Eng. Rabih Mohsen for their technical assistance. References: Abbas, N. H., Van der Molen I., Nader M., and Lovett J. 2013a. Citizens’ perceptions of trust relations in the environmental management process in North Lebanon, Under Review. Abbas, N. H., Van der Molen, I., Nader, M. R., & Lovett, J. C. 2013b. Perceptions from the Public and Private Sector on Trust and Cooperation in the Field of Environmental Management in Lebanon. Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 2(8), 571. Abi Saab, M A. 2012. Marine Biodiversity coastal waters. In: Kouyumjian & Hamze, eds. Review and perspectives of environmental studies in Lebanon. Lebanon: National Council for Scientific Research, pp. 1-30. Allen, M. 2011.Trust: the absent keystone in Lebanese democracy. Middle East Political AND Economic Institute. Available at :< http://mepei.com/in-focus/3800-trust-the-absent-keystone-in-lebanese-democracy> [Accessed 12 February, 2013]. Alsop R and Heinsohn N. 2005. Measuring Empowerment in Practice: Structuring Analysis and Framing Indicators, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3510. Antoun, R. et al. 1998. Waqi’ al- Baladiyat fi Lubnan wa ‘Awaiq al –Musharika al – Muhaliya wa at-Tanmiya al- Mutawazina. Beirut: Lebanese Centre for Policy Studies. Atallah, S. 2012. Establishing Regional Administrations for Integrated Development. The Lebanese Center for Policy Studies (LCPS), 2. Available at: < http://www.lcps-lebanon.org/publications/1347371684-policybrief_2.pdf.> [Accessed 24 May 2013] Axelrod, R. 1984. The evolution of cooperation. New York: Basic Books. Barnett, A., Yandle, B., and Naufal, G. 2013. Regulation, Trust, and Cronyism in Middle Eastern Societies: The Simple Economics of ‘Wasta’. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 44, pp. 41-46. Bazzi, M. 2007. Lebanon's Bloody Summer. The Nation, 16 July. Available at:<http://www.thenation.com/article/lebanons-bloody-summer>[Accessed 9August 2012]. Bazzi, M. 2009. In Lebanon: New Government, Old Politics. Interviewed by Bernard Gwertzman. [Council on Foreign Relations, 12 November]. Available at: < http://www.cfr.org/publication/20749/in_lebanon.html> [Accessed 5 February 2013].


276

Campion, M., Pursell, E., and Brown, B. 1988. Structured interviewing: Raising the psychometric properties of the employment interview. Personnel Psychology, 41, pp. 25-42. Cunningham, R.B. and Sarayrah,Y. 1993. Wasta: The Hidden Force in Middle Eastern Society. Westport, Conn: Praeger. Cvetkovich, G. and Winter, P. L. 2003. Trust and social representations of the management of threatened and endangered species. Environment and Behaviour, 35: 286–307. Deutsch, M. 1958. Trust and suspicion. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2, pp.265–279. Deutsch, M. 1960. The effect of motivational orientation upon trust and suspicion. Human Relations, 13, pp. 123-139. Edelenbos, J, and Erik-Hans K. 2007. Trust in complex decision-making networks: A theoretical and empirical explanation. Administration & Society, 39, pp. 25–50. Ferrin, D. L., Bligh, M. C., & Kohles, J. C. 2007. Can I trust you to trust me? A theory of trust, monitoring, and cooperation in interpersonal and intergroup relationships. Group and Organization Management, 32(4), pp.465-499. Ferrin, D.L., Bligh, M.C., & Kohles, J.C. 2008. It Takes Two to Tango: An Interdependence Analysis of the Spiraling of Perceived Trustworthiness and Cooperation in Interpersonal and Intergroup Relationships. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 107(2), pp.161-178. Habib, A. 2012. Demography and Socio-Economic Characteristics of the Lebanese Coastal Population. In Review and perspectives of environmental studies in Lebanon (pp. 265-295). Edited by Kouyumjian & Hamze, National Council for Scientific Research. Lebanon. Haddad, S. 2002. The relevance of political trust in postwar Lebanon. Citizenship Studies, 6 (2), pp.201-218. Hetherington, M.J. 1998. The political relevance of political trust. American Political Science Review, 92(4), pp. 791-808. Ibrahim S and Alkire S. 2007. Agency and Empowerment: A Proposal for Internationally Comparable Indicators, Oxford Development Studies 35(4), pp. 379-403. Institute of Environment (IoE). 2007a. IMAC: Status Report. Lebanon: University of Balamand. Institute of Environment. 2007b. IMAC: Assessment of the institutional and legal setting for coastal zone management in Lebanon: Final report. Lebanon: University of Balamand. Institute of Environment. 2009. IMAC: Project Summaries. Lebanon: University of Balamand. Ker Rault, PA. 2009. Reconsidering public participation and governance style in integrated water management: moving towards pragmatic contextual participative strategy. In Jenny Pope (Ed.), IAIA Ghana Conference Proceeding (pp. 1-6). Fargo, USA: IAIA. Available at: < http://www.iaia.org/iaia09ghana/documents/cs/CS2-5_Reconsidering-public-participation-and-governance.pdf.> [Accessed 28 March 2013] Koeszegi, S. T. 2004. Trust-building strategies in inter-organizational negotiations. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 19, pp. 640-660. Leenders, R. 2012. Spoils of Truce: Corruption and State-building in Postwar Lebanon. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Lundin, M. 2007. Explaining cooperation: How resource interdependence, goal congruence, and trust affect joint actions in Policy Implementation. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 17(4), pp. 651–672. Ministry of Environment, UNDP and ECODIT. 2011. State and trends of the Lebanese environment 2010. Lebanon: Wide Expertise Group. Mitri, G., et al. 2012. Monitoring Landcover Changes on the Coastal Zone of North-Lebanon Using Object-Based Image Analysis of Multi-Temporal Landsat Images. In: EARSEL, 1st EARSeL Workshop on Temporal Analysis of Satellite Images. Mykonos, Greece. Available


277

at:<http://www.earsel.org/SIG/timeseries/pdf/proceedings/proceedings_041.pdf.>[Accessed 25 January, 2013] Ostrom E. 2007. Collective action and local development processes. Sociologica 3, pp.1–32. Ostrom, E and Walker J. 2003. Trust and reciprocity: interdisciplinary lessons for experimental research. In: Ostrom E, Walker J (eds) .The Russell sage foundation series on trust. New York Russell Sage Foundation. Pahl-Wostl, C. 2007. The implications of complexity for integrated resources management. Environmental Modelling & Software, 22(5), pp.561-569. Sarraf, M., Larsen, B and Owaygen, M. 2004. Cost of Environmental Degradation: The case of Lebanon and Tunisia. Washington DC: World Bank. Smith, P. B., H. J. Huang, C. Harb, and C. Torres.2012. How Distinctive Are Indigenous Ways of Achieving Influence? A Comparative Study of Guanxi, Wasta, Jeitinho, and ‘Pulling Strings’. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 43(1), pp. 135-150. Takshe, A., et al. 2010. Dealing with pollution from conflict: Analysis of discourses around the 2006 Lebanon oil spill. Journal of Environmental Management, 91(4), pp. 887-896. Tennberg, M. 2007. Trust in international environmental cooperation in Northwest Russia. Cooperation and Conflict, 42(3), pp. 321-335. Wakim, N. 1998. Al-Ayadi as-Sawd. Beirut: Shirkat al Matbu’at li-al-Tawzi’ wa al-Nashr. World Bank. 2007. Republic of Lebanon Economic Assessment of Environmental Degradation Due to July 2006 Hostilities. Report No. 39787-LB, Lebanon: Sustainable Development Department Middle East and North Africa Region.


278

ADDED VALUE AT REGIONAL AGRI-FOOD PRODUCTS IN ARGENTINA "DENOMINATION OF ORIGIN SALAME OF

TANDIL" A CASE STUDY OF SOCIAL COOPERATION AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT

María Inés Jatib, Mg. Eng. Agr. Marina Bentivegna, Eng. Agr.

Horacio A. Repetto, Dr. National University of Tres de Febrero, Logistics and Food Program, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract

Geographical Indications and Denominations of Origin are an agrifood strategy, in which the geographical name, and ecological niche – product process (methods of production and local traditional processing) and whose close association comes together to get an original and inimitable product that retains its identity throughout the value chain. This strategy of adding value began to spread in Argentina in the nineties, but legal protection is only achieved at the local level (the national law and its amendments are from 2000 and Regulatory Decree from 2005), since they are not protected at the international level because the MERCOSUR- EU negotiations are still open to discussion. One of the successful cases, the object of this study, is the Denomiation of Origin “Salame of Tandil.” In this paper is presented the advances and setbacks that occurs in Argentina, showing a model of social cooperation and local development, which is the DO Salame of Tandil, and considering the various factors that restrict their commercial development, - presented aspects are discussed in the above - and particularly the human aspects, whose greatest difficulty falls on investments to be made by actors to achieve compliance with quality standards and the effort involved in the different ways of associations required by law. This case is definitly a model of the re-engineering process of agricultural and industrial of Small and Middle enterprises in the regional agri-food business, but has limitations that could be solved by the Council itself and others, that depends on national and international policy strategies.

Keywords: Denominations of origin, food strategy, regional economies, local development, and social cooperation Introduction

Denominations of Origin constitute an agricultural strategy, in which the geographical name, the ecological niche (natural and human factors) and the process - product (methods of production, local and traditional processing, packaging) all converge into one. An original product is obtained from that intimate association of a delimited geographical area, in which the conjunction occurs. Therefore, the product is inimitable in nature and retains its identity throughout the entire value chain.

The legal system of protection of GI/DO emerged in France with the law of 6 May 1919 regulating the protection of denomination of origin for wine regions rich in tradition. The French regions were devastated because of the First World War, which led to the state incentive mechanisms to boost economic activities. The legal protection and legal security afforded by the law of denomination of origin was very successful and got wine associations were created in order to regain their quality and consumer recognition, not only locally but


279

also, globally. This Law also elevated geographical names, to which the State recognized special attributes to the category of IPR - Intellectual Property Rights.

The protection of DO's in the field of world trade had been in international negotiations on two specific agreements: the Madrid Agreement of 1891, which in 1934 introduced provisions on geographical indications and the Lisbon Agreement of 1958. None of them counted with important support of many countries.

And it continued in 1995 when the TRIPS were accepted – reaching the adhesión of at least 125 countries-. This Agreement introduced the multilateral trading system provisions on IPR -related trade and at the insistence of the European Union it was included the Geographical Indications.

The TRIPS Agreement contains three specific provisions in the definition, first, the general system of protection applicable to all products and a specially wines and spirits, second, exemptions relating to pre-existing rights, and third, the principles set of no discrimination characteristic of multilateral agreements. It also obliges Member States of the WTO to have legal means to prevent fraudulent use of the IG, when the product has a different origin to avoid misleading the consumer, and / or when the use of a GI is an act of unfair competition.

The IG 's recognition of the European Union presents conceptual differences in cultural, economic and legal issues for Argentina. Cultural, because some of the IG's are part of everyday language and food habits. Economic, because recognition of a GI may involve the ending of the use of the name by which many companies sell their products in the domestic and foreign markets, implying a repositioning of the product with a new name in those markets. Legal, because the EU proposal would involve non-compliance of the national legislation and the TRIPS Agreement, regarding the protection of trademark property rights and the prohibition of allowing the appropriation of names in common use by private companies.

These differentiation’s instruments (DO and GI) - used in agriculture and agri-food, wines and spirits began to spread in Argentina in the nineties from the National Government, although the institutional aspects like laws to protect them were implemented after the approval of the Act, in 2000. To the present, there have been recognized, almost 86 Geographical Indications and 2 DO of wine products, such as, Wines of Lujan de Cuyo and San Rafael, and two food products: DO Chivito Criollo of Norte Neuquino and DO Salame of Tandil and there are others in their ways to be accepted like: Patagonian lamb (Cordero Patagónico), Colonia Caroya Salame, melons Mediagua, among others. The products thus protected at national level have not yet reached international protection, since the MERCOSUR - EU negotiations have not been completed until these days.

The National Government and several provincial governments strongly believe that there are effectively differentiated products by their particular origen-related quality, and traditional and historical production methods, and also they estimate that the promotion of this form of recognition and value added, would promote the growth of regional economies. Therefore, the National and Local governments supported the producers and farmers using technical programs and international funding, coming from the Quality Program of the National Department of Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries), including conscientization, training and other ways of promotion. Still, the progress is slow not only because of the commitment required for the development and implementation of a standardized quality protocol, but because in the organizational aspects, the association of the actors involved is very complex and requires efforts that not everyone is willing to perform.

The Agricultural Sector has always played an important role in the recovery of national and regional economies of Latin America countries, in general, and of Argentina, in particular. Since the recovery and protection of typical territory, not only as an economic area


280

but also as a social and cultural development’s área, is being strongly appreciated by local governments. Thus they are gaining commitment and involvement and more leadership. Problem statement

At follow-up that has been done on the subject, serious problems are observed that affects the chances of developing this strategy of social cooperation with regional impact, since the producers (actors) of the production chain must do relevant investment to achieve quality standards imposed by their own protocols as well as the effort to grow as a person and as a entrepreneur, to achieve social cooperation, which means the organization in one of the diferent forms of civil association according to the requirements of the DO/GI Act.

The other difficulty is that legal protection is limited to the domestic market, because not having Bi-National Agreements as demanded by WTO, DO/GI protected products can not be exported for lack of mutual recognition in the destination countries, or if exporting the product do not get the recognition of the relevant Agencies in the destination’s country. Therefore, producers and farmers cannot benefit from the incremental value they should get.

And finally, regarding the domestic consumers exists in the collective imagination a connection with the Origen’s name and the product quality, but they are not always willing to pay a premium price while recognizing the differential attributes of the IG/DO. In other cases, it is recognized a differential value of the product as a result of a prestige and recognition of a Denomination of Origin however it does not generate additional value, either because the consumers are unaware or they do not understand the guarantees or benefits that this tool can provide. I

The world market trends open multiple pathways to recovery and differentiation of local products through specific qualities such as Denominacion of Origin and Quality Seals that give exclusivity to the production of a particular region and that properly planned should generate profitability that returns to the Origin and consequently to the farmers and producers. The identification of potentiality in rural areas is one of many rural territorial development processes that are gaining momentum in the countries of the Southern Common Market (mercosur).

The definition of "Denomination of Origin" is the name of a region, province, department, district, city or registered area of the national territory which serves to designate a product originating therein the qualities or characteristics are due exclusively or essentially to geographical environment, including natural and human factors. Denomination of Origin refers not only to the specific source of a product, meaning, the local territory where it was given origin, but also refer to particular qualities result of production processes, raw materials, selection practices, knowledge technicians, which allow the product reflects a specific quality and may not be reproduced elsewhere.

While protection and recognition of a product with DO/GI is a tool of differentiation and added value, above all, it is an instrument of legal protection that provides legal frame against the usurpations and false imitations. For example, within the legislative framework of the MERCOSUR's Protocol Harmonization of Intellectual Property that establishes rules and principles that guide the actions of the countries in the recognition and enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, such as ensuring that the execution of those rights not represents a barrier to trade and that countries undertake to mutually protect their GI/DO's.

With DO’s protection a quality product attributable to its geographical origin is ensured. These particular characteristics are not an information "invented " or "created", but part of the tradition and therefore they are "recognized" and are maintained in accordance with production’S protocols whose "intrinsic characteristics" depend on associated natural and


281

human factors. The GI/DO once recognized and registered are granted forever, unless an eventual natural factor changes some of the features that gave them Origen.

Argentina, a WTO member country, in response to the commitments made in the TRIPS Agreement in 1999 sanctioned Law 25,163 - Wine and spirits vinous regulated by Decree 57/2004, in 2001 the Law 25.380 - Geographical Indication and Denomination of Origin for agricultural and food products, in 2004 Act 25.966 - Amending the Law 25.380, regulated by Decree 556/2009 and finally Resolution 587/2010 - Registration of Geographical Indications and Denomination of Origin for agricultural and food products in which its competences and functions are defined.

Also the Argentine government not only incorporated all undertakings IG's and DO's TRIPS Agreement, but also designed an institutional structure for recording domestic and foreign IG's and DO's. International negotiations on Denomination of Origin are brought forward via MERCOSUR - EU.

However, the date of entry into force of the TRIPS Agreement in 1995, the EU already had a legal protection regime of DO's: Regulation 2081 /1992. Currently in the EU agricultural and food Regulation (EC) No. 510/2006 and wine products by Regulation (EC) No. 1234/2007 regulate products. Since the finalization of the Uruguay Round (1986-1994), the EU has continued to insist in negotiations aimed at increasing the protection of GI both at the multilateral level, as also bilaterally through Bilateral Free Trade with countries such as: Mexico (1997), South Africa (2002), Chile (2002), Canada (2003) , USA (2006 ), Australia (2008 ), Korea (2010) and Colombia (2012 ) from which managed to get these countries to renounce the use of globally recognized names used as generic which are: Cognac, Grappa, Bourgogne, Chablis, Champagne, Marsala, Port, plus get the recognition and protection of hundreds of DO's .

The European Union, in representation of a strong interest from France, Italy, Portugal and Spain, demands exclusivity on the use of the names of foods that originated in their territory, to third countries. The explanation of this situation is related to the emigration that occurred in the early twentieth century that globalized those names. The phenomenon occurred because large numbers of European immigrants in order to reach new territories turned to food processing not only repeating the procedures used in their region of origin, but also the same names. For example, the semi-hard or hard cheeses were called Parmesan or Sardo Regiano. All these names were used to identify the product and were accepted by society in general, and in many cases, regulated by national food laws. By then, no country had adopted some legal protection system and eventually became the names commonly used terms with which the population began to identify these products (known as generic).

Currently the Countries Parties of MERCOSUR have not yet concluded any agreement on the DO's with the EU. However, many companies have been recalled in recent years various denominations, either for exporting, for ignorance or for being purchased by European companies interested in the protection of the name and will not be further used. (Echenique, 2013) An example of this is that in Argentina in 1999, the article 627 of the Argentine Food Code (CAA) was changed regarding the identity and quality of blue cheese. The amendment provided that the sales description of the Roquefort and Gorgonzola cheese were to become "blue cheese."

In the negotiation of the free trade MERCOSUR-EU, the latter demands the recognition and protection of a list of over 200 IG 's, arguing that the reputation of their products is used to deceive or mislead consumers regarding the true origin. The EU argues that the consumer and product reputation are legal rights that must be protected, when the real reason is economic, that is, the enormous commercial value that some of these names have.

Nationally the cornerstone of development policies for the food industry is set to the value added at origin and development with social inclusion. Salame Tandil: In September 2011 the second local Origin Denomination formally recognized. Before, DO Chivito Criollo


282

Norte Neuquino. There are several projects in development, but there is still a long way in a country of federal organization, which has a vast geography, diverse agro-ecological niches, strong presence of migrant cultures, and therefore, many products "with origin" whose possibilities to be recovered should be considered.

Argentine food, particularly regional production, in the case of eligible demanded by GI / DO could adopt this strategy to achieve greater market recognition. Thus, shrimp, squid, crab and hake are the South Atlantic in the name Patagonia a synthesis of known origin and quality. The same happens with pears and apples from Alto Valle de Rio Negro, lemons and pink grapefruit from Tucuman, Salta and Jujuy. All typical, well known and prestigious highly positioned in the global market for its quality products and recognized origin. Argentine Beef constitute the great paradigm of typical food, notorious and prestigious that owes its positioning and quality due to the geographical origin and natural grassland. No escape to this distinction the salame of Tandil, product that has built its identity over nearly a century of existence through natural and human factors integrated in a particular region that have given its feature tipicality

Valuing a product is a multidimensional process: social, political, economic and cultural it assumes a potential situation: a product, territory, society and market recognition, actual implementation requires mobilized actors, interested consumers an intervention team, the deployment of collective action, and knowledge especially bonds of trust join the parties.

Regarding to the DO’s organizational aspects, it must be considered that revaluation processes requieres time and because its complexity, requires also an agreement with a team stable over the time. In Argentina, according to the Act No 25.966 and its amendment No 25.380 (art. 9), it is mandatory that each DO has a unique name, which shall includes exclusively the actors involved and engaged in the extraction, production, packaging, and marketing of the products covered by the DO.

This Council of DO, its authorities and wiht its legal status, is responsible for developing the technical aspects because of the right that has been conferred by the representation of all farmers registered under the DO. The DO’s Councils are empowered to control, maintain and improve the quality of their products and the freedom to choose the legal organizational figure that it is most appropriate and suitable for them. Designation of Origin Case Salame Tandil

The search for the Denomination of Origin for Salame Tandil took about 15 years of work until the current Promotion Council was conformed, including the definition of typical product (salame) and the development of the Protocol (quality). This story was triggered by a presentation of the former authorities - Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food of the Nation, in the city of Tandil, due to spread of Denomination of Origin and, also the Argentina First International Seminar on Denomination of Origin, held in the city of Buenos Aires in 1995. During the meeting with the participation of a large number of local agri-food producers, they make first contact; some of them are members of the current Board. This initiative was immediately supported by the Municipality which supported the initiative through different resolutions commending the implementation of action programs for sausages handmade, and the declaration of local interest in obtaining a future denomination of origin that included the term "tandileros".

Several projects among producers, farmers and the Municipality began, and in order to adapt to national regulations regarding DO, the end of 2004 created it created a Technological Pole called "Producers Group chacinados of Tandil", all the tandilense producers were invited to participate in the project aimed to request a DO. Professors and researchers from the Department of Food Technology of Veterinary Sciences School (National University of Central Buenos Aires Province), participated and cooperated in the definition of the type of product that would be protected, the definition of the criteria that such a decision should be


283

based its patterns and finally procedure for both processes and the products, depending on the needs of the consumer.

As a result of this research project and joint work was presented the form of Denomination of Origin Salame of Tandil, in 2006. As a result of the changes to be made by the Regulatory Decree No. 556/2009, it became necessary to redesign the presentation, taking into account both aspects of the product and the production process.

In early 2010, a group of producers and marketers of Tandil, formed an association called Civil Council of the Denomination of Origin of Tandil Salame, with the sole purpose of promoting and regulating the Denomination of Origin "Salame de Tandil” according arises from legal documents of the Council. Subsequently acquires the character of Legal Entity from recognition by resolution DPPJ No. 2234 of the Justice Provincial Department under the Ministry of Justice of the Province of Buenos Aires. In this way, the Council was institutionalized and a common visión to protect a typical production linked to the cultural heritage of the region, which was permanently attacked by fake copies and counterfeits. It was reflected on paper work that had begun to take shape from informal meetings long time ago. A project that brings together producers, govenrment of province of Buenos Aires, Tandil Municipality, technical schools, local institutions, national universities and countless reviewers.

The paperwork submitted by the Board of Denomination of Origin of Tandil ‘s Salame was finally approved by National Goverment (Resolution SAGPyA 986/2011) in which , the quality protocol " Salame de Tandil " was approved, in September 2011.

Currently, the Board is composed of twelve members including sausages manufacturers, despostaderos, cattle producers, and farmers, businesses of regional food, pig farms, marketers and Institute of Agricultural Education, which are described and identified in the following Table. Although the Association is open, allowing the incorporation as partners including all the actors involved in the value chain of salami, since its creation has maintained its original conformation.

The Council is composed by large salami’s manufacturers, vertically integrated with agricultural and livestock production, also by smaller producers, and diversified developments of salami on a small scale and retail at the same time, and an educational institute which also produces and distributes salami following quality protocol. This is how they can be together in the same business and the Council, including those who produces handmade’s salami, only – Estancias Integradas-, as much as those processors that make the same products with the highest international technology both in processes and equipment - Cagnoli.

Also there are members whose production dates back to the last Century when European immigrants settled in Tandil and found the ideal climate for making salami which name became famous and reknown transcending the borders of the city and began to gain fame in major hotels and restaurants in Buenos Aires. Others have started for the first time and others started over the craftsmanship of salamis, more recently, settling in Tandil. –the productive region.

Table: Composition of the Council of the Denomination of Origin of Salame of Tandil.

* Socio -adherent, since he currently does not produce DO salami

Business name Activity CABAÑA LAS DINAS Las Dinas S.R.L sausage factoryCAGNOLI Cagnoli S.A. meat processing plant (pork and beef); sausage factoryESTANCIAS INTEGRADAS La Balbina S.R.L livestock producer, agriculturist, sausage factory and regional retail of food products SYQUET Syquet S.A. regional retail of food productsUNIPORC Uniporc Tandil S.A. Breeding Swine (1000 mothers in production) CHARCUTERIA TANDILERA* Javier Norberto Menedez Breeding Swine (50 mothers in production), sausage factory, regional trade in food products

GRANJA EL REENCUENTROLoans S.A.

Breeding Swine (450 mothers in production), sausage factory, regional retail of food products

GRANJA 9 DE JULIO Granja 9 de Julio S.A. Breeding Swine (200 mothers in production) ESTABLECIMIENTO EL CIMARRON Platan S.A. livestock producer and agriculturalINSTITUTO AGROTECNOLOGICO DE TANDIL

Inst. Agrotecnológico de Tandil Dr. Ramón Santamarina Institute of Secondary and College

ESTABLECIMIENTO SAN LORENZO Zubiaurre S.A. livestock producer and agriculturalMARIA LELOIR María Leloir S.H. livestock producer


284

Salame Denominacion of Origin The Tandil Salami has built its identity over nearly a Century of existence. Its flavor

and aroma has been from the very origin of the activity in the region, the differentiator for excellence and prestige reached nationwide. This is recognized by producers, processors and consumers and even local visitors from other regions of the country and the world. Carefully selected meats and bacon, combined with spices and ingredients prepared in conformity with an old family recipe, added to the maturation in the exact amount of time and under an adecuated climate, gave origin to a product with distinctive flavors and fragrances.

There is a clear, direct and almost immediate association between Tandil region and salamis. This determinant identification of product and region, and its persistence over time, contributed to the formation of the current recognition and reputation of the product from Tandil, since it expanded into other areas beyond the original boundaries of Tandil.

The salami Tandil has developed its distinctive qualities from multiple factors associated with the natural environment of the region and the aptitude and attitude of men who for nearly a century ago began to develop this product. It is the result of a history of immigrants, who were rooted in a very particular way within the pioneer families of this activity in the region itself, and they knew how to combine the old knowledge writen in ancient own recipes, with excellent natural resources and the enabling environment that offered the new land. Thus, this salami is the result of a process that harmonizes the favorable environmental conditions from Tandil, availability of raw materials in sufficient quantity and quality, the knowledge of traditional production techniques and a unique legacy of carefully guarded recipe. All linked by a wise family transmission’s process that ensured the survival of the secret “know how” in order to keep it from one generation to the next.

The geographical area in which the DO Salame Tandil is settled down, is a particular area that combines urban and rural elements, hills and mountains with small valleys, and configures a particular conjuntion socio- productive and comprising within its limits both production of raw materials (pigs and cattle), as the process of manufacturing product.

The Denomination of Origin “Salame of Tandil,” was registered nationally and is considered a successful case which has required the development of innovative tools, strategies of the cultural heritage - tangible and intangible – revalorization that somehow the globlization devalued, and search and investment in the growth of local skills and resources.

The protection of this traditional activity is important not only for producers but for the entire region. Currently in the city of Tandil 400 tons per month of dry sausages are made and is employing more than 500 families, most of them are living in Tandil. While the relevance of DO salame of Tandil is bounded in terms of volume of monthly sales of each producer, its importance is radical in terms of value added per unit and the role it plays in the position as a high quality product in association with culinary roots in the region.

This allowed that rural and surrounding áreas of Tandil, changed from being peripheral areas attached to the primary sector of the economy, structured in small and medium towns to be rediscovered and revalued, not only the geographical environment but also lifestyle, food, goods and services, representing the result of the cultural identity of the people. And that such processes are reflected in local economic and sustainable production that is environmentally friendly and necessary for the settlement of the rural population. No doubt that has taken a long time, and has not finished yet, still difficult especially in Argentina, a country strongly agri-exporter in which the natural resources are very rich and that shows itself as a supplier of commodities to the world, despite of aiming to be the hypermarket of the world, specially food provider (with added value).

The strategy of Denomination of Origin conects around the quality food, colective actions, and assessment of territorial identities, focusing on market access and customer preferences, which revalued, rescue, protect and frame the rich heritage of the communities


285

and towns, so that the DO stratagies introduces an interesting potential for the reconstruction of the economic and social network of regional economies. Conclusion and recommendations

Regarding the challenge and must of the Counsil’s members to maintain their partnership and grow both individually and collectively, requires an organized and hard work that will help to preserve the productive tradition and spread the differential value of this product. Because of this, the Council of the DO works not only in the control and audit of the productions made under the agreed protocol, but also in the organization of activities and marketing that spread the meaning and value of the DO, trough diferents local and nationwide events such as: The Festival Salame of Tandil, Contests and Salamis Tasting at local and provincial level, participation in food shows, training sessions, as well as be transparent and respect both legal and accounting regulations that are included under civil partnership of its kind.

On the other hand, actions are also developed to help strengthen ties within the value chain of salame de Tandil, as recent agreements of mutual cooperation between the Council of producers and regional food shops of the city, or the Mutual Cooperation Agreement signed with the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, National University of Central Buenos Aires Province, in order to allow the specialists audit the DO productions.

Regarding the lack of recognition of the great value of DO products, by consumers, the Council must work in lines of action that promote communication program at national level about the importance of DO in general, and typical products recognized as DO Salame de Tandil, in particular.

About the limitation and restrain that only allows the actors to market their products domestically, is not a task that can intervene council members, it only can be performed by the National government. It is in Argentina’s interest to move forward with the signing of trade agreements.

In the meantime, producers must work in advance around some issues like investing in human resources, promotion and marketing for further growth in the domestic market and thus absorb the higher costs associated with the certification process of the products with DO and the need to expand the critical mass of actors linked to the Council are the main challenges faced by producers of Tandil Salame partners in the Council of the DO

The case study of DO Salame de Tandil is an experience of reengineering’s process of of the agricultural and industrial Small and Middle Enterprises in the local and regional business. This successful consolidation of a DO strategy promotes the adoption of similar alternatives for different regions and different products, which would face the same challenge to survive and competitively grow wherein the intra-zone, industrial development and aims to improve linkages with the international system. * Special thanks to Mr. Sergio A. Fernandez, advisor to the Board of Denomination of Origin Salame Tandil for his part in the development work and provide information. References: Benedetto, Andrea. 2011. Territorial identities and their responsibility in local development. Leader Magazine, vol. 19 p. 201-219. Benedetto, Andrea. 2011. Las identidades territoriales y su incumbencia en el desarrollo local. Revista Líder; vol. 19 p. 201 – 219. Benedetto, Andrea. 2007. Valorización de la identidad territorial, políticas públicas y estrategias de desarrollo territorial en los países del MERCOSUR. Opera, pp. 139-165. Bogotá. Colombia. Berlinski Julio; Stancanelli, Nestor. 2010. Los Acuerdos Comerciales, Reflexiones desde un enfoque argentino. Siglo XXI. Buenos Aires.


286

Caetano, Gerardo (coordinador) 2009. Las negociaciones entre América Latina y el Caribe con la Unión Europea. Posibilidades e incertidumbres en el 2010. Cefir. Montevideo. Consejo de Denominación de Origen Salame de Tandil. 2011. Protocolo de Producción Salame de Tandil. Aprobado por Resolución 986/2011. Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería y Pesca de la Nación. Echenique, Marcos José. 2013. Implicancias jurídicas para Argentina de la negociación de Indicaciones Geográficas en el Tratado de Libre Comercio MERCOSUR – Unión Europea. Tesis de Maestría. UNTREF. Estefanel G. et al. 1997. El sector agroalimentario argentino en los 90. IICA. Buenos Aires. Jatib, M. Inés. 2010. Informe Técnico Denominación de Origen Salame de Tandil. Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería y Pesca. Jatib, M. Inés. 1996. Propuesta para la implementación del sistema de denominaciones de origen en Argentina. Agronegocios y Denominaciones de Origen. Primer Seminario Internacional de Denominaciones de Origen. SAGPYA. ISBN 987-95327-9-1-. 300 pp. Buenos Aires. Argentina. Ordoñez, Héctor et al. 1996. Agronegocios y Denominaciones de Origen. Primer Seminario Internacional de Denominaciones de Origen. SAGPYA – IICA. Argentina. on Appellations of Origin. SAGPYA - IICA. Argentina.


287

BARRIERS FACED BY NEW IMMIGRANTS IN ACCESSING HEALTH CARE SERVICES IN A MID-SIZED CANADIAN

CITY

Emad Awad MA Student at the University of British Columbia- Okanagan, Canada

Carlos Teixeira, Dr. Community, Culture, and Global Studies, UBC Okanagan, Kelowna, BC; School of Arts and

Abstract This study explores the barriers that new immigrants in a mid-sized Canadian city face

when they attempt to access health care services. The primary objectives of this study are to find out what hinders new immigrants from obtaining appropriate health care when needed, and to examine the effectiveness of the health care system for new immigrants outside the major cities. The main research questions guiding this study are:(1) What are the major barriers that new immigrants face in accessing health services during the first five years of arrival in Kelowna- a mid-sized Canadian city? (2) How do new immigrants deal with emergency health care needs during the first three- uninsured months after arrival in Kelowna (3) How effective is the Canadian health care system in serving new immigrants in the city of Kelowna? Barriers in accessing health care have become an important concern in Canada because they pose serious settlement challenges for newcomers and may prevent them from integrating into the new society (as cited in Asnin and Wilson, 2008). Additionally, barriers in accessing health services may delay necessary care. This consequently puts immigrant patients’ safety and lives at risk, especially in case that medical emergency care are needed, and lead to deterioration of their health, thereby create health disparities among different populations in the country (Marmot, Wilkinson, & Ebrary, 2003).

Keywords: New immigrants, access to health care, barriers, emergency health care, mid-sized city, Canada Background and Relevance

International migration has been progressively increasing over the past 50 years. The number of cross border immigrants has increased from 75million in 1960 to almost 214 million in 2010 (United Nations, 2009; International Organization for Migration, 2010). During the last decade, with the economic globalization changes, the pattern of immigration to developed countries has continued to increase. The number of international immigrants has jumped from around 150 million in 2000 to almost 215 million in 2012 (United Nation, 2012).

Canada is known to be a destination country for international immigration. The total numbers of immigrants entered Canada in 2012 was 257,151(Statistic Canada, 2012)

matching the governmental admission target plan to accept around a quarter million of immigrants every year (Government of Canada, Citizenship and Immigration, 2012). Canada seeks immigrants for different reasons such as filling the labor shortage and strengthening their economies, whereas, immigrants are moving to Canada in search of better quality of life (Teixeira, Kobayashi and Li, 2012). Therefore, the immigration is mutually beneficial for both parties. However, recent research revealed that at the early stage of settlement, immediately after arrival to Canada, immigrants encounter many settlement difficulties. One of the most


288

critical difficulties is impediments in accessing health care (Teixeira, Kobayashi and Li, 2012). Although Canada is known to have a universal health care system, peer reviewed studies disclose evidence that recent immigrants face barriers when seeking health care. These barriers include: language skills insufficiency, spatial distance, financial difficulties, knowledge deficiencies, and cultural isolation (Wu,Penning, and Schimmele, 2005; Sanmartin and Ross,2006; Lai and Chau, 2007; Asanin and Wilson, 2008; Newbold, 2009; De Maio, 2010; Bell, Wilson, Bissonnette, and Shah, 2012; Kullgren, McLaughlin, Mitra, & Armstrong, 2012). Additionally, newly landed immigrants have to wait for three months to be enrolled in the insured care in some Canadian provinces including the province of BC. According to the BC Ministry of Health, “the three- month- waiting period is in place to protect publicly funded health care services” B. Sealey (personal communication, December 20, 2013). It is critically important to know how new immigrants access health care during this critical period, especially in case of medical emergencies.

Most of the aforementioned studies were carried out in the main Canadian Metropolises Area (Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver) or large Canadian cities such as Mississauga, where the population exceeds 600,000. Little is known about immigrants’ access to routine and emergency health care in small and mid-sized cities. It is crucial to begin research on this topic to fill the gap in literature, especially after it has been acknowledged that the number of immigrants who choose to live in mid-sized cities has been increasing over the last two decades (Canada Immigration and Citizenship, 2013). The City of Kelowna is a true “social laboratory” to conduct this study because it has attracted a number of new immigrants over the last decade and it is likely to have more immigrants in the foreseeable future as “attracting immigrants is on the city municipal agenda” (Teixeira, 2009). Methodology

This study adopts a mixed methods approach that involves both questionnaire surveys and key informants interviews. The questionnaire will consist of close and open-ended questions. The questionnaire will cover several topics (a) socio-demographic information, (b) settlement in Kelowna, (c) utilization of health services, (d) barriers in accessing care, (e) dealing with emergency health conditions, and (f) coping strategies and recommendations. A combination of the quota sampling technique, gate keeper sampling and snowball technique will be used to recruit the study participants who will be a group of immigrants (n= 60), from both genders, above 18 years old, born outside Canada, and who have moved to Kelowna within the last five years as officially landed immigrants. Additionally, semi-structure interviews will be conducted with 10 key informants who have expertise in immigration and health care affairs in the city of Kelowna to provide a better understanding of immigrants’ accessibility issues to health care and effectiveness of health care system in serving new immigrants in the city.

The questionnaire will be generated and developed by the researcher who will rely on relevant, valid and reliable references such as the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC) (Statistics Canada, 2007) in formatting the questions and the contents. The survey will consist of structured questions that include rank-order, multiple choices, and closed ended questions. Additionally, the questionnaire will be available in two forms, a paper- based and an e survey. The participant will be asked to choose which format she/ he prefer to use. An online survey will be emailed to the potential participants, and for those who prefer a paper based, the paper- based questionnaire will be mailed to their addresses. The surveys will be preceded by a consent form explaining the study objectives and the participants’ rights.

An example of the questions that will be in the survey is the question that has been adopted from LSIC: “What problems or difficulties have you had when getting medical care in Kelowna?” This question will be followed by 12 potential answers. The participants will be


289

instructed to mark all that apply. The answer choices will be (1) I had no problem, (2) language problems,(3) cost was high, (4) exposed to discrimination, (5) care was not congruent with my culture, (6) clinic/hospital was far away from my home, (7) I waited long time to be seen by a doctor, (8) I did not know where to go to get care, (9) I did not have health insurance, (10) the service I needed was not available, (11) I did not get any help , and (12) others (Statistics Canada, 2007). Each of these answers is representing a single item (a potential barrier in accessing health care).The participants well be asked to rank these barriers from the most bothersome to least.

All questions will be clear, concise and logically sequenced, so that a question does not bias the answer of the following questions. Vague terms, jargons, abbreviations, and leading questions will be totally avoided. Face validity of the questionnaire will be considered, that is to say, the questions will be checked whether they appear to be measuring the construct. Further, three experts in research methodology and immigrants’ health will be asked to independently evaluate the questions’ wording, formats, and consequences as well as the measurement level used to ensure the content validity.

Moreover, in order to reduce the systematic errors in the measurements and enhance greater reliability, the researcher will pilot test the questionnaire with ten respondents and receive feedback about how clear the questions are, and what is the expected time for the questionnaire to be completed. Accordingly, necessary changes will be made. Furthermore, the respondents will be asked to complete the survey twice within 2 months (test- retest reliability/ intra-observer reliability).The extent to which the answers are stable will be tested by using correlation coefficient test. Finally, as the survey is measuring different aspects of health access barriers, it is critically important for the researcher to check the internal consistency reliability. Thus, during the analysis stage, data will be double-checked and verified. Additionally, Cronbach’s alpha test will be carried out using SPSS, alpha coefficient of 0.7 or higher will be accepted as a confirmation of internal consistency among the tested items. Analysis

The sample of this study will be representative of both genders. By using the quota sampling technique, 30 female and 30 male participants will be recruited. The research results will clearly include sex-disaggregated data and descriptive statistics that will be summarized in tables and graphs. The tables and paragraphs will show the commonalities and differences between men and women and among participants who have different cultural background in terms of their utilization of care and experiences of barriers in accessing health care. Accordingly, recommendations will be released. Limitations

A few limitations should be addressed in this study. First, there is a potential bias from the sampling error, as the sample size and diversity may not represent the entire immigrants’ population in the city of Kelowna. Second, the results may not be generalized to the entire immigrants’ population. However, the main goal of this study is to explore the recent immigrants’ experiences and barriers when attempting to access health care, not to generalize the outcome to the entire immigrants’ population. Once the barriers of accessing health care have been explored, this paper will recommend further descriptive and/ or explanatory study. The main reason for using this particular research approach in this study is that there are very limited studies that deal with the field of accessing health care by recent immigrants in mid-sized Canadian cities. Therefore, this exploratory research is essential to gain significant understanding of the barriers in accessing health care in Kelowna as a mid-sized city. Once insight and understanding are obtained, future studies can formulate or develop hypotheses


290

with more detailed investigations, including testing relationships among key-variables and generalizing the results. Significance and Research Contribution

The collected data will provide an in-depth understanding of the barriers encountered by recent immigrants when accessing health services, and the potential impacts of these barriers on the immigrants’ health. This study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal, and the results and outcomes of this research will be used as an avenue for future research in this multidisciplinary field of science (health, geography and special populations) in small and mid-sized cities in North America. Further, the study results will be used to advise policy makers in health services and provide them with recommendations for achieving equitable and safe access to health care. Consequently, better integrations of this vulnerable group in the new Canadian society will take place. At this point, the literature review has been completed. Ethics application is in progress. Data collection will be started in June 2014 and the results will be released by January 2015. References: Asanin, J. & Wilson, K. (2008). I spent nine years looking for a doctor: Exploring access to health care among immigrants in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Social Science & Medicine, 66(6), 1271-1283. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.11.043 Bell, S., Wilson, K., Bissonnette, L., & Shah,T. (2013). Access to primary health care: Does neighborhood of residence matter? Association of American Geographers.Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 103(1), 85-105. doi:10.1080/00045608.2012.685050 Citizenship and Immigration Canada. (2013). Facts and figures 2012. Immigration overview. Retrieved 10/17, 2013, from http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/statistics/facts2012/permanent/11.asp De Maio, F. G. (2010). Immigration as pathogenic: A systematic review of the health of immigrants to Canada. International Journal for Equity in Health, 9, 27-46. doi:10.1186/1475- DesMeules, M., Gushulak, B. D., Pottie, K., Roberts, J. H., & Torres, S. (2011). Migration and health in Canada: Health in the global village: Canadian guidelines for immigrant health. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 183(12), 952-958. Fuller-Thomson, E., Noack, AM., & George, U. (2011). Health decline among recent immigrants to Canada: Findings from a nationally-representative longitudinal survey. Canadian Journal of Public Health.Revue Canadienne De Sante Publique, 102(4), 273-280. Health Canada. (2012). Health care system. Retrieved 12/10, 2013, from http://hc- hcs-sss/prim/about-apropos-eng.php International Organization for Migration. World migration report (2010).The Future of Migration: Building Capacities for Change. Retrieved from http://publications.iom.int/bookstore/free/WMR_2010_ENGLISH.pdf Immigrants' health and health care. In Teixeira, C, Li, W, & Kobayashi, A (Ed.), Immigrant geographies of north American cities (pp. 157-173). Canada: Oxford University Press. Kullgren, J. T., McLaughlin, C. G., Mitra, N., & Armstrong, K. (2012). Nonfinancial barriers and access to care for U.S. adults. Health Services Research, 47(1), 462-485. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6773.2011.01308.x Lai, D. W. L., & Chau, S. B. Y. (2007). Predictors of health service barriers for older Chinese immigrants in Canada. Health & Social Work, 32(1), 57-65. Marmot, M. G., Wilkinson, R. G., & Ebrary, I. (2003). Social determinants of health: The solid facts. Copenhagen: World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe. Newbold, B. (2009). Health care use and the Canadian immigrant population. Int J Health Serv, 39(3), 545-65.


291

Sanmartin, C., & Ross, N. (2006). Experiencing difficulties accessing first-contact health services in Canada: Reports of difficulties in accessing care vary by age, sex and region. Healthcare Policy = Politiques De Santé, 1(2), 103-119. Teixeira, C., Kobayashi, A., & Li, W. (2012). Immigrant geographies of north American cities. Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford University Press. ------------ (2009). New immigrant settlement in a mid-sized city: A case study of housing barriers and coping strategies in Kelowna, British Columbia. Canadian Geographer, 53(3), 323-339. doi:10.1111/j.1541-0064.2009.00266.x Statistics Canada. (2007). Longitudinal survey of immigrants to Canada (LSIC). Retrieved 02/5, from http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=4422&lang=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2 United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (2012). World Population Prospects: The 2012 revision. Retrieved fromhttp://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Excel-Data/migration.htm Wu, Z., Penning, M. J., & Schimmele, C. M. (2005). Immigrant status and unmet health care needs. Canadian Journal of Public Health.Revue Canadienne De Sante Publique, 96(5), 369-373.


292

ATTITUDE OF INDIAN MOTHERS TOWARDS CHILD RIGHTS

Valliammal Shanmugam Lecturer, College of Nursing

Ramachandra, Additional Prof. Department of Nursing, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore.

Abstract Children form a very important population in any society. The future health status and

behaviour of a person are laid down during childhood. To ensure survival and healthy development into adulthood, proper care during childhood should address all the basic needs for children. Child care is mostly the responsibility of mothers. There are very few population based data on attitude of mothers on child rights in South India. The attitude of the mothers towards child rights is very important as they are the basic unit in rearing children. This study was therefore carried out among mothers at selected paediatric Outpatient department of South India. The aim of the study was to assess attitude of mothers towards child rights of selected dimensions. An exploratory research design was adopted to accomplish the purpose of this study. The simple random sampling technique was used to select 40 mothers. The data was collected for a period of 10 days. Each day four subjects were interviewed. Modified Children's Rights Attitude Scale developed by Rogers and Wrightsman (1978) semi structured four point Likert scale on Child Rights was used as main screening instrument. It contained 25 items. The results revealed that the mean attitude score of the subjects was (69.30) with mean percentage of (69.3%). Majority of the subjects (92.5%) had moderately favourable attitude towards child rights. A significant association was found only between attitude score and residential status of the mothers (X2= 7.544, P< 0.05).

Keywords: Attitude, child rights, mothers Introduction

For all individuals physical, emotional, cultural, spiritual and social wellbeing is vital strands of life that are closely interwoven and deeply interdependent. As understanding of these relations, it is also applicable to the growing children1. Children are vulnerable group and they are exposed to a wide range of child rights violations. Violation often occurs in children through inadequate knowledge of parent & caregivers and improper living conditions. Enjoyment of the child rights is vital to all aspects of a child’s life and crucial to the realization of many other fundamental child rights2. With more than a third of its population below the age of 18, India has the largest child population in the world. This backgrounder explores the levels of health, nutrition, education and social security of children, and government policy and action on child rights. Out of every 100 children, 19 continue to be out of school, 40% of children are malnourished. Of every 100 children who enrol, 70 drop out by the time they reach the secondary level. India is home to the highest number of child labourers in the world3. With this ground realities of children in India the investigator aimed to study the attitude of the mothers towards selected child rights such as Right to standard of living, right to expression, right to freedom, right to protection, and right to education.


293

Materials and methods An exploratory research design was adopted to understand the attitude of mothers of

child rights in selected dimensions such as standard of living, right to expression, right to freedom, right to protection and right to education. The study was carried out in at selected paediatric Outpatient department of South India. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 40 mothers, who met the criteria. After reviewing the literature and identifying topics related to the child rights, modified semi structured Rogers and Wrightsman (1978) four point Likert scale on child rights was used to collect the data. The content validity of the tool was sought from experts in the field of paediatric, paediatric nursing and psychologist and suggestions given by the experts were incorporated according to the study nature and local setting. The reliability of the tool was established, the reliability core was = 0.82. The tool was divided into two parts: Part I Baseline data Baseline data consisting of age, marital status, religion, educational status, occupation and residential status. Part II Modified semi structured attitude scale on child rights A four point Likert scale was used to assess the attitude of the mothers towards child rights. It consisted 25 items covering various dimensions such as right for standard living, expression, education, protection and free punishment. The tool contained 16 positive statements and nine negative statements of attitude questionnaire. Maximum score was 100 and minimum score was 25. The attitude scoring was given as, for favourable attitude (> 75%), moderately favourable (36 -75%) and for unfavourable attitude (< 35%). The data collected was processed, edited, coded and analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results

Table1. Baseline data of Mothers N=40


294

Table no.1 shows the baseline data of the mothers. More than half (55.0%) of the

mothers belong to the age group of 26-30 years. Most of the mothers (92.5%) were married. Majority of them were belonging to Hindu religion (82.5%). Majority of them were illiterate (25%) and studied up to high school (25%). Maximum number of the mothers (90%) belonged to below poverty line (< 17000 rupees/yr). Most of them were residing in Urban slums (80%) when compared to Urban (15%) and rural (05.0%).

Table 2. Range, Mean, Mean Percentage and Standard Deviation of attitude of mothers regarding Child rights N=40

Sample Attitude Score Mothers Max. Score Range Mean Mean % SD 100 61-76 69.30 69.3% 3.236 Table no.2 shows that the mean attitude score of the mothers was 69.30 with a mean percentage of (69.3%) which shows a majority of the mothers had moderately favourable attitude regarding child rights.

Table 3 Dimension wise attitude score of mothers regarding Child rights N=40

Dimensions Mean SD Mean % Standard of Living 14.58 1.31 72.90 Right to expression 8.8 1.44 7.33 Right to freedom 15.98 1.216 66.58 Right to protection 16 1.746 66.67 Right to education 1.68 1.82 68.40

Table no.3 shows the dimension wise Mean, SD and Mean percentage attitude score of mothers regarding child rights. Majority of the subjects had favourable attitude with regards to provide standard of living (72.9%) and right to education (68.40%).

Table 4. Attitude levels of mothers regarding Child rights N=40

Attitude Level Mothers Frequency (f) Percentage (%)

Favourable 03 7.5% Moderately Favourable 37 92.5% Unfavourable -- --

Table no.4 shows that majority of the mothers (92.5%) had moderately favourable attitude towards child right. i.e. maximum number of mothers had total scores between 36 -75% and 7.5% of the mothers had favourable attitude towards child rights.

Association with selected baseline data of mothers with their attitude scores regarding child rights showed that there is statistically significant association between residential status and the attitude scores of the mothers (X2 = 7.544, P < 0.05) which indicates that the residential status influences the attitude of mothers regarding child rights. Discussion

In general, mother’s attitude towards child rights plays a vital role in rearing children. The samples contained more number of young mothers between the age group of 26- 30years (55.0%). Most of them were illiterate (25%). Majority of the mothers (90%) were below poverty line with an annual income of rupees 17,000/- and 80% of them were from urban slums who were accompanying the children to the paediatric Outpatient department. Most of the mothers (92.5%) had moderately favourable attitude towards child rights with a total scores between 36 – 75%. Dimension wise results showed that majority of the mothers had moderately favourable attitude about Standard of living and right for education. The study results are consistent with a study conducted by Sudha (2012) to explore the attitude of the


295

mothers towards the rights of the children at Chengalpattu district, Tamil Nadu found that moderately favourable attitude was seen in standard of living and a favourable attitude towards right for education among mothers and also indicated that the residential status and mothers educational status influenced the attitude of mothers regarding child rights4. A study conducted by Justin et al (2011) on attitude of parents towards child rights indicated that the parents had favourable attitude towards right for education and right for expression with irrespective of their socio demographic background5. Similarly Kishore et al (2010) assessed attitude of mothers regarding child rights and the study revealed that the mothers had positive attitude towards basic right of children6. Similar study findings have been reported by the study conducted by Joby et al (2010) on parent’s attitude towards child rights. The study revealed overall results was moderately favourable attitude towards all the dimensions of child rights but more favourable attitude was shown in the areas of right for education, right for protection and standard of living with no significant association with the socio demographic data7. Conclusion

Present study concludes that the mothers with moderately favourable attitude towards child rights need to focus much more clearly on defining child rights based on the better future and insight of the children. It is notable that all above mentioned studies were conducted in India and in all the studies, it is clear that mothers have inadequate knowledge regarding child rights which in-turn led to moderately or unfavourable attitude. Hence, it is high time for all the citizens of the country to join hands to build up a healthy society through rising awareness on child rights to the public. Nurse administrators need to take initiative in organizing educational programmes in the community to emphasis on child rights to prevent child right violations in the society. References: Aitken, S. C. ‘Global crises of childhood: rights, justice and the un childlike child’ Area . 2001. 33 (2): 119-127 Anonymous ‘The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as a touchstone for research on childhoods’ Childhood-a Global Journal of Child Research,1999. 6(4) 403-407. Child Rights in the Global Week of Action, ‘Concept paper prepared by HAQ: Centre for Child Rights’, April 14, 2005. Sudha, ‘A study to explore the attitude of the mothers towards the rights of the children’. Indian Journal of nursing, 2012; 30(2) 17-19. Justin A, Santosh JK. ‘Attitude of parents towards child rights’ Indian Journal of Psychiartic Nursing, 2011; 05(1) 30-32. Kishore G, Shani P. ‘Assessed attitude of mothers regarding child rights’ Indian journal of Social Welfare, 2010; 14(1): 2-12 Joby B, Varghese A. ‘Parent’s attitude towards child rights’ Journal of community health nursing 29(2): 193-207.


296

OVER THE BRIEFING STUDENTS TEACHERS INTEGRATION OF THE QUR'AN AND SUNNAH WITH THE CONCEPTS OF HEALTH AND ALIBAIH AND BIOLOGICAL

Zeid Kilani, Dr. Description of the Secretary, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Jordan

D. ÇáÚćÇăŃÉ Mohammed Hassan, Islamic Education, Department of Teacher row, University of Zaytuna

D. Mohamed Zahran Abu Ali, Department of Teacher row - University of Zaytuna

D. Adnan Daulat, Department of Curriculum and Instruction; University of Jordan

D. Hussein Farhan Rmzon, Faculty of Arts, University of Zaytuna

D. Ibrahim Hammad, Department of Curriculum and Instruction; University of Jordan

نصوص القرآن والسنة مع املفاهيم الصحية واليبيئة والبيولوجية مدى إحاطة الطلبة املعلمني بتكامل

اجلامعة األردنية -قسم املناهج والتدريس -أ. د صفا أمني زيد الكيالين جامعة الزيتونة-حسن العوامرة، تربية إسالمية، قسم معلم صف دمحمد.

جامعة الزيتونة -علم صفد. حممد زهران أبو علي، قسم م د. عدنان دوالت، قسم املناهج والتدريس؛ اجلامعة األردنية د. حسني فرحان رمزون، كلية اآلداب، جامعة الزيتونة

د. ابراهيم محاد، قسم املناهج والتدريس؛ اجلامعة األردنية

الصحية واليبيئة والبيولوجيةنصوص القرآن والسنة مع املفاهيم مدى إحاطة الطلبة املعلمني بتكامل امللخص

92إحاطة الطلبة املعلمني بتكامل نصوص القرآن والسنة مع املفاهيم الصحية واليبيئة والبيولوجية. تكونت عينة الدراسة من عن مدى تبحث الدراسةعادة ما يكون متوسط القبول يف نفس التخصص على أساس التنافس، أعلى -طالبا وطالبة من جامعتني أردنيتني (إحدامها خاصة واألخرى حكومية

متطلب كلية –ت يف اجلامعات احلكومية عن اجلامعات اخلاصة)؛ وجه للطالب الذين يدرسون مادة الرتبية البيئية يف اجلامعة اخلاصةمعدال 10حبوايل وجهت وفقرة من اختيار من متعدد، تتضمن نصوصا من آيات كرمية وأحاديث نبوية شريفة؛ 55طالبا، استبانة مكونة من 18االداب، وعددهم ختصص معلم صف يف اجلامعة احلكومية. وكان على الطالب –طالبا يدرسون مساق مفاهيم إسالمية 14فقرات، إىل 8بزيادة -نفس االستبانة

ية.اإلشارة فيم إذا كانت الفقرات تقتصر على مفاهيم الرتبية اإلسالمية، أم أا تتكامل مع مفاهيم الرتبية الصحية والبيئية البيولوجفقرة 57طالبا، استبانة مكونة من 41يف اجلامعة اخلاصة ، وعددهم -متطلب كلية االداب–ين يدرسون مادة أصول الرتبية وجه للطالب الذ كما

وص القرآن من اختيار من متعدد، تتعلق مبمارسات مرتبطة مبفاهيم الرتبية الصحية والبيولوجية والبيئية، وتتوافق يف مضمون منفعتها مع مقاصد نصختصص معلم صف يف اجلامعة –طالبا يدرسون مساق مفاهيم علمية 19فقرات، إىل 6بزيادة -نة النبوية؛ و وجهت نفس االستبانة الكرمي والس


297

ة مع مفاهيم الرتبياحلكومية. وكان على الطالب اإلشارة فيم إذا كانت الفقرات تقتصر على مفاهيم الرتبية الصحية والبيولوجية والبيئية، أم أا تتكامل اإلسالمية.

% من 83% من طالب اجلامعة اخلاصة استطاعوا القيام بربط ما يزيد على 12% من طالب اجلامعة احلكومية و 100بينت نتائج الدراسة أن % من طالب اجلامعة 88الفقرات اخلاصة باملمارسات املبنية على نصوص القرآن والسنة مع مفاهيم الرتبية الصحية والبيولوجية والبيئية ( كان بإمكان

% من طالب اجلامعة 31% على األقل من نصوص القرآن والسنة مع املمارسات احلياتية). كما دلت نتائج الدراسة على أن 53اخلاصة القيام بربط والبيئية والبيولوجية مع % على األقل من الفقرات املتضمنة للمفاهيم الصحية 53% من طالب اجلامعة اخلاصة استطاعوا القيام بربط 2.5احلكومية و

نصوص القرآن والسنة.أنه بينما استطاعت مناهج الرتبية اإلسالمية حتقيق أهدافها يف العمل على ربط أوامر الشرع مبقاصده فيما خيدم مصلحة الفرد يف جتدل النتائ

ل األعمال الدنيوية متناغمة مع العبودية. كما أن تفاوت القدرة الدنيا واآلخرة؛ إال أن مناهج الرتبية العلمية مل تستطع حتقيق األهداف السلوكية جبعيعين أن على متخذي القرارات اخذ عامل التحصيل على تعميم النصوص الشرعية على املمارسات احلياتية، تأثرا مبستوى التحصيل يف الثانوية العامة،

رعية، ملا يرتتب على ضعف التحصيل من عدم القدرة على االستنباط من نصوص يف الثانوية العامة بعني االعتبار لدى القبول يف التخصصات الش القرآن والسنة، واإلتيان بالفتاوى واألحكام املغلوطة.

نصوص القرآن والسنة مع املفاهيم الصحية والبيئية والبيولوجية مدى إحاطة الطلبة املعلمني بتكامل

أوامره واجتناب نواهيه "وما خلقت اجلن واإلنس إال باتباع ،رضاة اهللا سبحانه وتعاىلمل تتوجهال يقوم با الفرد املؤمن جيب أن احلياتية إن األعمال

قه ف- ال تبتغي وجهه تعاىل املمارسات احلياتية . وتتحقق هذه العبودية من خالل57الذاريات -"ليعبدون ما أريد منهم من رزق وما أريد أن يطعمون إن تفهم التكامل بني نصوص القرآن والسنة وعملية ممارستها على وجهها الصحيح يقود إىل تفهم فقه املقاصد. .تالعبادا

صل إىل تعليل التو يبحثون عن علل الشرائع من أجل -الثاين والثالث والرابع -كان العلماء ومنذ القرون األوىل للهجرة :نبذة تارخيية عن فقه املقاصد] عن الصالة ومقاصدها يف القرن الثالث؛ حيث مت الرتكيز يف هذا الكتاب على شرح اآلية 1، كما يف كتاب الرتمذي [اواكتشاف حلوهل هاامأحك

عندما حتدث ،ظهر جمال مقاصد الشريعة اإلسالمية كعلم مستقل يف القرن اخلامس اهلجريكما الكرمية ( إن الصالة تنهى عن الفحشاء واملنكر ). هي ضرورات لبقاء مت التحدث باأن املصاحل ال معتربا النفس والعقل والدين والنسل واملال؛ :] عن املصاحل الضرورية اخلمس2) [478-اجلويين (

كتابه يف الشاطيب واإلمام ، ]3[ هـ)660-( السالم عبد بن العز :وتوالت صياغة مقاصد الشريعة يف القرون التالية ؛وال نزلت الشرائع مبراعاتا فردالمطلع القرن الرابع اهلجري على املذاهب الستخراج منذ القضاة واعتمد ]. 6]، ومن احملدثني ابن عاشور [5والغزايل [ ]،4[ هـ)790-( املوافقاتصد الشرعية القائمة على املصاحل الضرورية ال تطوير نظرية املقا وصياغة على العمل على القرن اخلامس اهلجري كما انكب الفقهاء ومنذ األحكام،

.]7[ إدخاهلا يف أصول الفقه من مث ومت ،ذكرها اجلوييناملصلحة بأا جلب منفعة ] 5[ عرف الغزايل وقد املصاحل؛ هي املقاصدبأن ] 8[) 660-عبد السالم ( بن ذكر عز الدين تعريف املقاصد الشرعية:

لشرعي يقول الغزايل يف املستصفى: املصلحة هي (احملافظة على مقصود الشرع، ومقصود الشرع من اخللق مخسة، وهو أن ودفع مضرة، ويف االصطالح ادينهم ونفسهم وعقلهم ونسلهم وماهلم، فكل ما يتضمن حفظ هذه األصول اخلمسة فهو مصلحة، وكل ما يفوت هذه األصول فهو حيفظ عليهم

مفسدة، ودفعها مصلحة). األمور يف للقياس منه بد ال شرط والعلل واحلكم املقاصد ومعرفة فرعية. ومقاصد عام، مقصد هلا الشريعةيف ضوابط املصلح؛ ] 9[ البوطي يقولكما أن مع ياس،الق يرفضون الذين الظاهرية مع املقاصد يف للبحث الرافض يتطابق وبذا القياس، يستحيل املقاصد فهم فبدون شرعي؛ نص فيها يرد مل ال

العلوم. وسائر واملنطق والقانون الفقه يف جدا مهم القياس األعراب على املشرع عاب وقدخرى. األ هوقياسه على أوجهه تعميم لقدرة علىا ، من حيث عدمالنفاق يورث املقصود فقه بدون بالنص لتسليموا كفرا أشد "األعراب أخرى آية ويف ؛"احلجرات -14 كم"قلوب يف اإلميان يدخل وملا أسلمنا قولوا ولكن تؤمنوا مل قل آمنا األعراب "قالت األمر هذا؛ وميثل تفكريهم يثاحد والتكفرييني قدميا اخلوارج التفكري يف االجتاه ذاه حتمل ال الفرق ومن التوبة.-34اهللا" أنزل ما حدود يعلموا أال أجدرو ونفاقا

-لقد حرم اهللا تعاىل ما حرم وأحل ما أحل وفرض ما فرض مبحض حقه سبحانه يف ذلك. وال شك أنه حلكمة " قول أحدهم على الشبكة العنكبوتية "


298

لكن هذه احلكمة هي يف علمه هو سبحانه فإن أخربنا با يف كتابه أو على لسان رسوله صلى اهللا عليه وسلم فإننا -احلكيم العليم-سبحانه-فهو . "نقول با ونؤمن بذلك

فقد هادوا. الذين كحال حاهلم يصبح الشرعي النص على العقلية احلجة من املستقى الدليل يرجحون الذين الفقهاء الوقت، فإنوبنفس وميطرون عاب القرآن الكرمي عليهم هذا االجتاه، فهم ال ينصاعون لألمر إال بعد أن تنجلي هلم حكمته كفلق الصخر، فيبتدرون بالشك قبل اليقني،

قالوا أتـتخذنا هزوا قال أعوذ إن الله يأمركم أن تذحبوا بـقرة وإذ قال موسى لقومه ، كما أخرب اهللا سبحانه وتعاىل عنهم " اساالالت قبل العمل بالنيب بالتوإنا لن ندخلها حىت إن فيها قـوما جبارين قالوا يا موسى أمروا بدخول األرض املقدسة " ؛ ويف قصتهم عندماالبقرة. -67بالله أن أكون من اجلاهلني"

املائدة. -22" ”خيرجوا منـها فإن خيرجوا منـها فإنا داخلون ،املادي فهم ال ينصاعون للنص إال بعد أن يظهر هلم مردوده ،غطي برداء العلمانيةالت ،يف عصرنا احلاضر لذين حيملون هذه الصفاتوالشيء املميز ل

واعتبار املؤمنني الذين يرجعون ،مع التلبس بقشرة واهية المعة للفضيلة ]،Giere,1984 ، ]10خذ القرارات حسب سياق احلادثة الظريفتتو والرجوع إىل تقنينه ،تشجيع الفجورومثال ذلك يف الوقت املعاصر لقياس واالستنباط من أحكام اهللا األبدية العامة لكل زمان ومكان، من السفهاء؛ ل

من التجارب إال ضوء الربق املتقطع ،بتشبيههم مبن يسري يف ظلمة دامسة ليس له من نور ،ويأيت الرد عليهم يف القرآن الكرمي. يدزمع انتشار اإلقاموا ولو شاء اهللا أظلم عليهم وإذا مشوا فيه أضاء هلم كلما "يكاد البـرق خيطف أبصارهم ،)، وال قد تكون مهلكةواخلطأالعشوائية العابرة ( التجربة

تفسدوا يف األرض قالوا إمنا حنن مصلحون إال إم هم "وإذا قيل هلم ال البقرة. -20على كل شيء قديـر. لذهب بسمعهم وأبصارهم إن اهللا -13 -10االية يشعرون، وإذا قيل هلم آمنوا كما آمن الناس قالوا أنؤمن كما آمن السفهاء أال إم هم السفهاء ولكن ال يعلمون" املفسدون ولكن ال

،البقرة "الكتاب أهل من قسم فيه وقع الذي الضالل إىل يقود ،النص على واهلوى اخلاصة املصلحة من املستقى الدليل حترجي نفإ األخرى الناحية ومن

على علم من أفرأيت خذ إلهه هواه وأضله هللا وختم على سمعه وقلبه وجعل على ب ات صره غشاوة فمن يهديه من بعد هللارون هـ)716-( الطويف القدامى من النهج هذا اتبعوا الذين هؤالء ومن ومكان. زمان لكل وصاحل معجز النص أن مع الغاشية؛ -23( أفال تذك

باخنداع يتجلى هموخطر الطويف، إىل نسبة اجلدد، بالطوفيني وصفهم ميكن نمم احملدثني، من كثري هناك أن ]12[ املصري رفيق الدكتور ويعترب ،]11[ ."خادعة أوصاف من ذلك إىل وما جمددون، أو أئمة، أو مستنريون، علماء أم" بوصفهم بم، العامة توصله أن إال املسلمني، أول هو السالم عليه مإبراهي كون فمع السالم، عليه إبراهيم سيدنا األول بإمامه ممثال اإلسالمي، النهج على التنبيه جيب وهنا إليه، أنزلت ال واألوامر بالكتاب سلم املرحلة، هذه وصوله بعد ولكنه التوحيد، ألصل توصله إىل واألصنام النجوم بعبادة بتشككه بدأ التوحيد، ألصل السالم. عليه إمساعيل– الوحيد ابنه بذبح تسليمه فيها مبا

تناغمة إال بيوال حتصل التقوى احلقيق ؛نتيجة خنر اجلوهر بآفة النفاق ،تعمل كذراع واق من استبدال اإلعمار باإلفساد وال مة،العاص هي والتقوى يعين اخلضوع لألمر بدون التفكري يف منافعه و(submission) ميزت اآليات الكرمية بني اإلسالم واإلميان، فاإلسالم إلسالم. وقد مع ااإلميان ما كان إبراهيم يهوديا وال " ، عليه السالم عندما أمر بذبح ابنه، فرضخ لألمر بدون تساالل إبراهيمكما يف قصة واالجتماعي؛الشخصي مردوده

وتلي مرتبة اإلسالم مرتبة اإلميان، حبيث يقوم الفرد بأداء البقرة. -135 -" ولكن كان حنيفا مسلما وما كان من المشركين نصرانيا مجعوا بني األمرين، حبيث قاموا بالتسليم بال استثناء العبادات، (على وجه التسليم)، بالرتافق مع فهم حكمتها التشريعية؛ ومجيع األنبياء عليهم السالم

وراة فيها " كما أخرب اهللا سبحانه وتعاىل عنهم بتسليمهم بأحكام التوراة ؛بأوامر اهللا سبحانه وتعاىل ابتداء، مع تفهمهم حلكمتها ا أنزلنا الت إنبيون الذين أسلموا هدى ونور ) يحكم بها الن انيون واألحبار بما استحفظوا من كتاب هللا ب .المائدة 44 -للذين هادوا والر

الشريعة بتفهم أحكام إجيابيااملسلم عمل يؤدي إىل جعل (أو املصاحل) الرتكيز على علم املقاصدإن : ]13[ املقاصد: يقول الطاهر قانة فائدة علم إباحة و ،العقاب على الثيب الزاين، وجعل حد احلر ضعف حد العبد ؛ كمثل حكمة تشديدملصلحة العباد يف الدنيا واآلخرة ومقاصدها ال جاءت

ورفع حد السرقة يف اجتناب كرائم األموال يف الزكاة، ودفعها يف فقراء حملها،و الكائنات البحرية، -عند االضطرار، أو لكوا يف حميط معقم أكل امليتةقائما يصل . فقد يمن مل يتعلم املقاصد مل جيد للعبادة حالوة، وصارت صالته وزكاته تعبا وعقابا، وظل صيامه وحجه جوعا وعذابا. إن ،الرمادةعام

ى املسلمنيإنتاجها ألفسد عل رتنميتها وأخ تأخذ من املسلمني كرائم أمواهلم وعرقلولو ،الك اهلسبب لنفسه يمريضا أو مسافرا و يصوموهو عاجز، و إيالء االنتباه الكايف للفروق وعدميف إصدار الفتاوى وطرح األحكام من تلك النصوص، ختالل، واالاألحكام الشرعيةفهم نصوص إن سوء. نيتهم

االستشهاد واالنتحار، ، وعدم إيالء النظر إىل الفرق بنيالضرورياتالفردية يف القدرة على االستنباط، أدى إىل تقدمي األمور اهلامشية التكميلية على .والنكاح والسفاح، والبيع والربا


299

كما أن استنباط األحكام من النصوص الشرعية ال يتأتى ألي شخص، فالناس خيتلفون يف مستوى فهمهم للنص، وبالتايل يف مستوى قدرتم على سول وإلى " اآلية الكرميةاستنباط املقصود؛ كما يف وه إلى الر الستنبطونه منهم ولوأولي األمر منهم لعلمه الذين ي ولو رد

فضل يطان إ هللا بعتم الش كل صلى اهللا عليه وسلم (حيمل هذا العلم من روي عن النيب فقد ]؛ ؛النساء ﴾۸۳﴿ القلي العليكم ورحمته التفالتحريف واالنتحال والتأويل الفاسد من أدعياء العلم أفسد على ]؛15[ هلني)خلف عدوله ، ينفون عنه حتريف الغالني وانتحال املبطلني وتأويل اجلا

إن ملضمون اآلية الكرمية تتوافق مع على وجهها وظرفها الصحيح.لتقلب بني رخص اهللا وعزائمه با، وهذا يعين أن علم املقاصد ميكن من العامة دينهم 14اختالف قدرة الطالب على االستنباط من النص الكتايب باختالف مستوى الذكاء [أدبيات علم النفس الرتبوي احلديث، وال أثبتت

أن أيا من األعمال الدنيوية إذا ابتغى با صاحبها ] 17[ ولقد بني الغزايل الشخص الذي يقوم بتنفيذ شعائر الدين كقراءة القرآن وتفسريه لقاء أجر وعلى النقيض من هذا فإنمرضاة اهللا تعاىل فإا تصبح نوعا من العبادة،

الذي يقوم باألعمال ن إ ]18[ فقد ذكر ابن العريب لتوجهمتفقا مع هذا ادنيوي، فرمبا ال يثاب يف اآلخرة، إذا ابتغى بعمله جمرد األجر الدنيوي. و ن التقوى واجلمع بني العمل بالنص وفهم آلية تنفيذه هو ما يتصف به الكمل من حيث أواآللة سواء. هويصبح احلياتية لرد تيسري ورفاهية العيش

عباد الرمحن.]، رأي أفالطون بأن احلر احلقيقي هو من كانت أهدافه يف 19ويوافق هذا القول للغزايل وابن العريب أدبيات اصول الرتبية، فقد تبىن جون ديوي [

عليه احلياة واضحة له، ويعمل على أساس حتقيقها يرضى عنها بصورة مستقلة، مع عمله على حتقيق أهداف التمع، وليس االقتصار على ما ميليه مثال " 75 -اآلخرون، فيصبح كالعبد الكل على مواله؛ وهو يشابه املعىن الذي أوردته اآلية الكرمية يف سورة النحل عبدا مملوكا ال ضرب هللا

ا وجهرا يقدر على شيء ا رزقا حسنا فهو ينفق منه سر . " هل يستوون ومن رزقناه من

منهجيتها مشكلة الدراسة و :مشكلة الدراسة

اإلحاطة هذه وعالقة ،نصوص القرآن والسنة مع املفاهيم الصحية والببيئة والبيولوجية مدى إحاطة الطلبة املعلمني بتكامل عن تبحث الدراسة السؤال األسئلة الفرعية التالية:وينبثق عن هذا .بالتحصيل

ة حسب ما مدى التباين يف القدرة على ربط املمارسات الصحية املتضمنة يف مفاهيم الرتبية الصحية والبيولوجية والبيئية مع النصوص الشرعي مستوى التحصيل؟

البيولوجية والبيئية، حسب مستوى ما مدى التباين يف قدرة الطلبة على ربط املمارسات املبنية على نصوص القرآن والسنة مع املفاهيم الرتبية الصحية و التحصيل؟

منهجية الدراسة: معدالت يف 10عادة ما يكون معدل القبول يف التخصص أعلى حبوايل -جامعتني (خاصة وحكومية منطالبا وطالبة 92ن تكونت عينة الدراسة م

وال تضم -متطلب كلية االداب–يف اجلامعة اخلاصةة البيئية وجه للطالب الذين يدرسون مادة الرتبي اجلامعات احلكومية عن اجلامعات اخلاصة)؛ضمن تت ،فقرة من اختيار من متعدد 55من ةمكون انةاستب ،طالبا 18 وعددهم ختصص اللغة العربية واإلجنليزية والتصميم اجلرافيكي ومعلم الصف،

طالبا يدرسون مساق مفاهيم إسالمية، 14، إىل -فقرات 8ادة بزي-كما وجهت نفس االستبانة ؛نصوصا من آيات كرمية وأحاديث نبوية شريفةوكان على الطالب اإلشارة فيم إذا كانت الفقرات تقتصر على مفاهيم الرتبية اإلسالمية، أم أا تتكامل ختصص معلم صف، يف اجلامعة احلكومية. مع مفاهيم الرتبية الصحية والبيئية البيولوجية.

فقرة من 57طالبا، استبانة مكونة من 41، وعددهم -متطلب كلية االداب–يدرسون مادة أصول الرتبية يف اجلامعة اخلاصةكما وجه للطالب الذين القرآن الكرمي اختيار من متعدد، تتعلق مبمارسات مرتبطة مبفاهيم الرتبية الصحية والبيولوجية والبيئية، وتتوافق يف مضمون منفعتها مع مقاصد نصوص

ختصص معلم صف يف اجلامعة –طالبا يدرسون مساق مفاهيم علمية 19فقرات، إىل 6بزيادة -لنبوية؛ كما وجهت نفس االستبانة والسنة اة مع مفاهيم الرتبياحلكومية. وكان على الطالب اإلشارة فيم إذا كانت الفقرات تقتصر على مفاهيم الرتبية الصحية والبيولوجية والبيئية، أم أا تتكامل

اإلسالمية. نتائج الدراسة


300

اإلجابة عن السؤال األول: ية حسب ما مدى التباين يف القدرة على ربط املمارسات الصحية ال تتضمنها مفاهيم الرتبية الصحية والبيولوجية والبيئية مع النصوص الشرع

مستوى التحصيل؟ )1 ( جدول

جامعة خاصة\جامعة حكومية- مفاهيم الرتبية الصحية والبيولوجية والبيئية مع النصوص الشرعية درجة ربط املمارسات الصحية املتضمنة يف النسبة املئوية لإلجابات املتكاملة الرتتيب

على الفقرات عدد حكوم\لطالب

ية

النسبة املئوية خاصة\عدد الطالب حكومية\

النسبة خاصة\املئوية

1 93.-1.00 1 0 5% 0% 2 83.-92. 2 0 10.53% 0% 3 73.-82. 0 0 0 0% 4 63.-72. 1 0 5% 0% 5 .62-.53 2 1 10.53% 2.5%

6 .52-.43 1 1 5% 2.5% 7 .42-.33 3 4 16% 10% 8 .32-.23 4 5 21.1% 12% 9 .22-13 2 9 10.53% 22%

10 .13-.03 2 14 10.53% 34%

11 .03-0 1 7 5% 17% %100 %100 41 19 الموع

% من 52% من طالب كلية العلوم الرتبوية، ختصص معلم صف ربط أكثر من 31) أنه بينما استطاع 1تشري إجابات الطالب على اجلدول (% فقط من طالب كلية اآلداب يف اجلامعة 2.5الفقرات املتضمنة للمفاهيم الصحية والبيئية والبيولوجية مع نصوص القرآن والسنة ، مل يستطع سوى

). 5و4و3و2و1خلاصة القيام بذلك (الموع الرتاكمي للمستويات، ا

اإلجابة عن السؤال الثاينية، حسب مستوى ما مدى التباين يف قدرة الطلبة على ربط املمارسات املبنية على نصوص القرآن والسنة مع املفاهيم الرتبية الصحية والبيولوجية والبيئ

التحصيل؟ )2جدول ( جامعة خاصة\جامعة حكومية-املمارسات املبنية على نصوص القرآن والسنة مع مفاهيم الرتبية الصحية والبيولوجية والبيئية درجة ربط

النسبة املئوية لإلجابات املتكاملة الرتتييب

على الفقرات \العدد حكومية

النسبة خاصة\العدد حكومية \املئوية

النسبة املئوية خاصة\

1 100- .93 11 1 79% 6% 2 .92-.83 3 1 21% 6% 3 .82-.73 0 5 0% 28%


301

4 .72-.63 0 7 0% 39%

5 .62-.53 0 2 0% 11% 6 .52-.43 0 0 0% 0% 7 .42-.33 0 1 0% 6% 8 .32-.23 0 1 0% 6% % من الفقرات اخلاصة باملمارسات املبنية 83% من طالب اجلامعة احلكومية القيام بربط ما يزيد على 100) أنه بينما استطاع 2يشري اجلدول (

(الموع % من طالب اجلامعة اخلاصة القيام بذلك، 12على نصوص القرآن والسنة مع مفاهيم الرتبية الصحية والبيولوجية والبيئية، مل يستطع سوى % من الفقرات 53% من طالب اجلامعة من طالب اجلامعة اخلاصة استطاعوا ربط مايزيد على 88)، ومع هذا، فإن 2، 1الرتاكمي للمستويات

.) 1، 2، 3، 4، 5احملتوية على نصوص القرآن والسنة مع مفاهيم الرتبية الصحية والبيئية والبيولوجية (الموع الرتاكمي للمستويات ( مناقشة النتائج % من الفقرات اخلاصة باملمارسات 83% من طالب اجلامعة احلكومية القيام بربط ما يزيد على 100النتائج السابقة تبني أنه بينما أستطاع

ذلك، ومع % من طالب اجلامعة اخلاصة القيام ب12املبنية على نصوص القرآن والسنة مع مفاهيم الرتبية الصحية والبيولوجية والبيئية، مل يستطع سوى % على األقل من الفقرات؛ مما يعين أن غالبية الطالب بال استثناء من 53% من طالب اجلامعة اخلاصة القيام بربط 88هذا فإنه كان بإمكان

قا لنصوص القرآن % من الفقرات، بأن املمارسات ال كان عليهم القيام با طب53طالب اجلامعة اخلاصة واحلكومية كانوا على وعي فيما يزيد على سبحانه وتعاىل والسنة، هي ملصلحتهم يف الدنيا واآلخرة، من حيث تأثريها اإلجيايب يف األمد القصري على حياتم الدنيوية، ويف األمد الطويل بثواب اهللا

% 2.5ب اجلامعة احلكومية و% فقط من طال31هلم على طاعته يف اآلخرة؛ بينما مل يكن العكس صحيحا، حيث أن نتائج الدراسة تدل على أن % على األقل من الفقرات املتضمنة للمفاهيم الصحية والبيئية والبيولوجية مع نصوص القرآن 53من طالب اجلامعة اخلاصة استطاعوا القيام بربط

والسنة.وامر الشرع مبقاصده، جبعل الطالب يدركون هذه النتائج تبني أنه بينما متكنت مناهج الرتبية اإلسالمية من حتقيق الكثري من أهدافها بربط أ .

لتناغم مع هذه أن االمتثال ألوامر اهللا سبحانه وتعاىل هي أوال وأخريا ملصلحة الفرد يف الدنيا واآلخرة؛ إال أن مناهج الرتبية العلمية مل تستطع األخالقية والسلوكية للفرد والتمع من الرتبية العلمية، األهداف، من حيث ربط املفهوم العلمي بنصوص القرآن والسنة، من أجل حتقيق األهداف ا

وقد بينت داغر، بالعبودية احلقة يف خالفة اهللا يف أرضه؛ وجعل األعمال الدنيوية متناغمة يف مبتغاها مع هذه العبودية كما وردت يف كتاب اهللا، وسنته.Dagher ]19 [ وسادلر Sadler [20]سادلر و زييدلر وSadler& zeidler [21] أن عدم ربط املفهوم العلمي بأصوله ،

الدينية واألخالقية يقلص إمكانية تكوين مفهوم مشويل علمي إجرائي لدى الطالب.عامة، التحصيل يف الثانوية المستوى ف اختالإىل ممارساتا التطبيقية ب النصوص الشرعيةإرجاع وجود تباين يف القدرة على أيضاتبني النتائج هذه

ان حيث أن طالب اجلامعة احلكومية كانوا أقدر على ربط النصوص، من طالب اجلامعة اخلاصة، والذين عادة ما حيصلون على معدالت أقل يف امتحإىل عوامل بيئية الثانوية العامة، ال متكنهم من قبوهلم يف اجلامعات احلكومية، حسب التنافس؛ وعادة ما يرجع التحصيل األعلى يف الثانوية العامة،

هذه العوامل (تدريس ودراسة أفضل)، وعوامل وراثية (قدرة على تذكر واستنباط املعلومات أثناء أداء االمتحان)، ومن اجلدير بالذكر أنه ال ميكن فصل .]14[عن بعضها البعض، حيث أن تأثري كل عامل يتداخل مع اآلخر

جابات بني طالب اجلامعة احلكومية واخلاصة إىل الدراسة اجلامعية، حيث أن التدريس اجلامعي حتكمه وهذا يعين أنه ال ميكن إرجاع التفاوت يف اإل عوامل -ية والبيئيةقوانني وزارة التعليم العايل، و التفسري األرجح هلذا التفاوت هو عامل التحصيل السابق يف الثانوية العامة، احملكوم بالعوامل الوراث

مما يرتتب عليه، بناء على هذه النتائج، .، وال ميكن تقليص هذا التفاوت، إال ما ندر، أثناء فرتة الدراسة اجلامعية -ة اجلامعيةتراكمية سابقة للدراسأن على متخذي القرارات خبصوص قبول الطالب يف التخصصات الشرعية، اخذ عامل التحصيل يف الثانوية بعني االعتبار، حيث أن ضعف التحصيل

ق األذى يف املستقبل باألمة ككل بالفتاوى العام يرتتب عليه عدم قدرة طالب التخصصات الشرعية على االستنباط من نصوص القرآن والسنة، مما يلح واألحكام املغلوطة نتيجة لقصور التفكري.


302

التوصيات تبني نتائج الدراسة:

ص القرآن أنه جيب العمل على ربط املناهج املواد العلمية وال ينبثق عنها الكثري من التطبيقات الصحية، باملمارسات التعبدية املطلوبة يف نصو -1هلذه ل العمل الدنيوي دوما متجه ملا فيه مصلحة الفرد يف الدنيا واآلخرة؛ فالطالب عندما يدرس عن أمهية التشجري يف الرتبية البيئية؛ تصبحوالسنة، جلع

املمارسة أمهية أكرب عندما تقرن حبديث الرسول صلى اهللا عليه وسلم "إذا قامت القيامة على أحدكم ويف يده فسيلة فليغرسها". أن يأخذ القبول اجلامعي بعني االعتبار تفاوت قدرات الطالب االستنباطية، يف القدرة على إرجاع املوقف املعيشي إىل نصوص القرآن جبب -2

نصوص والسنة؛ وذلك من أجل أن يتم تزويد األمة برجال دين مؤهلني قادرين على محل رسالة الدعوة احلكيمة الغري مغلفة باجلهل وسوء التفسري ل رآن والسنة. .ملراجعالقاملكتبة الوقفية املصورة، - احملقق: مشهور بن حسن آل سلمان; املوافقات"الغرناطي أبو إسحاق; " الشاطيب إبراهيم بن موسى بن حممد اللخمي ]1

2008 سالطني"، الشبكة العنكبوتية." تقدمي الشيخ "حممد عبد السالم الصالة ومقاصدهااحلكيم "أبو عبد اهللا حممد بن علي الرتمذي ،] 2[ اجلويين، أيب املعايل، إمام احلرمني، عبدامللك بن عبد اهللا بن يوسف, "غياث األمم يف التياث الظلم" الشبكة العنكبوتية) 3[ عز الدين بن عبد السالم"قواعد األحكام يف مصاحل األنام" الشبكة العنكبوتية] 4[ 2008"املستصفى من علم األصول " احملقق محزة بن زهري، الشبكة العنكبوتية، الغزايل، أبو حامد] 5[ .اإلسالمية" طبعة دار النفائس مقاصد الشريعةبن عاشور، حممد الظاهر "] 6[ .2013\6\18 -13 -] حمجوب، عبد احلفيظ، حوار على الشبكة العنكبوتية7[ احملقق: عبد اهللا بن عبد احملسن الرتكي، الشبكة العنكبوتية ;الطويف، سليمان بن عبد الكرمي بن سعيد، جنم الدين ابو الربيع "شرح خمتصر الروضة" ]8[ .1973، "، مؤسسة الرسالة، الطبعة الثانيةضوابط املصلحة يف الشريعة اإلسالمية “ " انضالبوطي، حممد سعيد رم] 9[ ]10[ Giere, R., 1984. "Understanding Scientific Reasoning"; Second Edition; Hot, Rinehart

&Winston; New York. "في رعاية المصلحة"، الشبكة العنكبوتية. نجم الدين سليمان بن عبد القوي ] الطويف،11[

2013\6\18-13] المصري، رفيق، حوار على الشبكة العنكبوتية، 12[ .2013\6\18-13 الطاهر قانة جامعة باتنة اجلزائر، الشبكة العنكبوتية ]13 [

[14] Brown,A., John, B., Robert, F., &Joseph, A. (1983) “Learning, Remembering and Understanding”, Handbook of Child Psychology, New York: Wile, 1983.

"، الشبكة العنكبوتيةابن القيم "مفتاح دار السعادة ]15 [ ، الشبكة العنكبوتيةابن داوود النووي يف رياض الصاحلني ]16[ .الشبكة العنكبوتية. -الغزايل، أبو حامد "إحياء علوم الدين ]17[ ابن العريب "الفتوحات املكية "نسخة مصورة "]18[ [ 19] Dagher, Z. and BouJaoude, S ., ‘scientific views and religious beliefs of college

students: The case of biological evolution. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 34, 429-445, 1997

[ 20] Sadler, T., "Informal Reasoning regarding socioscientific issues: Acritical review of research" Journal for Research in Science Teaching, 41 (5) 513-536, 2004

[ 21] __________., &Zeidler, D., Patterns of informal reasoning in the context of

socioscientific decision making" Journal for Research in Science Teaching. 42 (1) P. 112-138, 2005


303

GLOBAL BIOPROGRESSIVE REHABILITATION PROGRAM AND POSTURAL INSTABILITY IN PARKINSON’S DISEASE

Bellomo RG Di Pancrazio L

Department of Medicine and Science of Aging, “G. d’Annunzio” University, Chieti, Italy Khodor H Saggini R

Department of Neuroscience and Imaging, “G. d’Annunzio” University, Chieti, Italy Barassi G

Carmignano SM Di Stefano A

Section of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, "G. d'Annunzio" University, Chieti, Italy

Abstract

Postural instability increases the risk of falling. Falls are common events in Parkinson disease (PD) but only a few prospective studies have focused on causes and consequences of falls. Frequent falls represent a major problem for PD patients, causing head traumas and bone fractures. Different rehabilitative strategies have been tentatively applied, especially on visual disturbances, but more structured studies are needed to quantify the efficacy of specific physical treatments. Objective: To create a bioprogressive rehabilitation program effective to influence in a positive way the quality of life through the recovery of postural control, the use by the patient of a more stable scheme of walking and less demanding from the point of view of the energy necessary, a raise of the muscular strength and resistance and a raise of the mobility. Ultimately the goal is to reduce the risk of falling and the spiral of events linked to the hypokinetic syndrome that can follow the event fall. Methods: 12 PD patients were randomly selected. The patients underwent dynamic antigravity postural system (SPAD) associated with an auditory cue system (a metronome) and the high-intensity focused vibratory system (VISS) and VRRS (Virtual Reality Rehabilitation System, active stretching treatments for 4 months. Results: The bioprogressive rehabilitation program has determined an improvement of balance of the patients while walking so a reduction of fall and an improvement in quality of life.

Keywords: Parkinson’s disease, postural instability, rehabilitation, cues Introduction

The interest for a therapeutic approach to the rehabilitation of Parkinson disorders related to movement, posture, gait and, therefore, the independence and quality of life of patients and their caregivers, stems from the evidence that these disorders, despite drug therapy, persist and worsen with the evolution of disease.

PD patients have impaired neurophysiological integration processes, especially of proprioceptive signals needed to form an internal representation of body movements and to implement compensatory measures in response to postural perturbations or external conditions that affect balance.


304

Movement disorders can severely impair the patient's autonomy, such as the ability to: walk, write, go up and get out of bed until you get the ability to live independently.

Characteristic symptoms include bradykinesia, akinesia,, phenomena of freezing , loss of balance and postural control (difficulty to maintain the upright position for hypotonia and reduced elasticity of trunk muscles and loss of balance when changing from one position to another and especially with eyes closed), stiffness and finally motor programming deficit. This explains the postural instability and changes in gait characteristics ( "stopped postures," camptocormia and freezing) that increase the risk of falling.

Bioprogressive postural rehabilitation program aim to achieve better neuro-musculo-skeletal conditions (strength, resistance, coordination), but also better overall motoric performances (postural steps, walk, daily activities) so the reduction of the risks of falling. The therapeutic approaches are muscular stretching and training, the re-education of the postural steps, instability posture and gait, and the training for cognitive strategies such as auditory cues. I

The study has been developed at the Department of Physical and Rehabiltative Medecine of the University “G. D'Annunzio” in Chieti.

The sample was composed by 12 patients, 5 female and 7 males, with an average age of ± 64 years old, affected by Parkinson Disease.

The patients were involved in a drug therapy based solely on dopaminergic drugs or on dopamine agonists. In fact, they were not presenting any concurrent pathology. Volunteers were eligible to participate if they were aged ≥ 45 years of age and ≤ 80 years of age and they fulfilled United Kingdom Parkinson’s Disease Society Brain Bank clinical diagnostic criteria for PD, their Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores was scores was ≥24 and Hoehn-Yahr stage > 1 and < 4.

Participants were excluded if they had symptoms and compatible signs with atypical parkinsonism; if they had positive history for major surgeries to the spine (tumors, infections, ankylosing spondylitis, paraneoplastic syndromes) or they suffered of other neurological diseases, respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, severe cerebrovascular disease, diseases of the endocrine system.

The aim of the study was to improve postural control, the use by the patient of a gait cycle more stable and less expensive in terms of muscle energy, an increase in the muscular strenght and resistance so reduce the risk of falling and the spiral of events linked to the hypokinetic syndrome that can follow the event fall. Hypokinetic syndrome can result in the complete loss of autonomy and other comorbidities (reduction of respiratory and cardiovascular parameters, dehydration, incontinence, and ulcers) and finally death.

All the patients were included in a global bioprogressive rehabilitation program that can be summarized as follows: -Pathophysiology of pain and Semiotics -Preserve the homeostasis of cybernetic body system -Posture linked with laws of balance, comfort and economy through the Rehabilitation Process and optimization of performance - Movement Centralization

Rehabilitation Program consists in a global therapeutic approach made up of rehabilitation in microgravity environment with SPAD system for proprioceptive rieducation of posture and gait cycle associated with auditory cues and a specific and individual training program with whole body vibration and high intensity focused acoustic waves (ViSS) , active stretching and VRRS (Virtual Reality Rehabilitation System) treatments for 4 months. - SPAD (Dynamic Antigravitational Postural System), 20 minutes, two times per week for 4 months. The Dynamic Antigravitational Postural System (SPAD) is a system of


305

remission of body weight consists of a system to which the patient is connected via a harness: a belt worn to the height of the trunk, adapted to the individual characteristics of the patient, is then connected to the lift system by means of 4 belts attached to the body and to the pelvic girdle. The system consists of a treadmill on which the patient performs the gait cycle retraing.

The system consists also of two rear bearings support placed one at the apex and a sacral infrascapular bearings and an additional 4 front, 2 height of the anterior superior iliac spines (SIAS) and the other 2 for the conjugations of the acromion-clavicular, which act as stabilizers-informants proprioceptive and prevent possible twisting of the pelvis or shoulder during movement on the treadmill. It allows to work in a three dimensional way on the posture correcting the asymmetries in a microgravitary and dynamic environment, thanks to the presence of treadmill at the base of it. The Treadmill is able to work at very low speed (0.01 Km/h) and it allows small speed increases. While training, each patient was followed by one physician and physical therapists and it has been invited to walk so composed and aligned. He has been facilitated by the sling and proprioceptive stimulation of the bearings, to make strides as long as possible, according to their ability, and it is correct continuously performing step, inviting the patient to get a cadence ordered sequentially with support of the calcaneus -plant-toe. The last part of the session has provided for the progressive reduction of the weigth body supported in a gradual way down to 0% and then the speed of the treadmill was reduced down to 0 km / h. In this way, the last part of the session, while maintaining the stimulus proprioceptive, to walk without weigth body supported.

SPAD system has been associated with an auditory cue represented by a metronome with sound that marked the rhythm of gait of the patient. - ViSS (Vibration Sound System, BIOELCOM .s.r.l.), 3 sessions/week (15 min) for 4 months. Adaptive metabolic and mechanical responses of the human neuromuscular apparatus subjected to mechanical acoustic vibrations (MAV) are widely supported in the literature (Lundeberg et al., 1984; Seidel 1988; Tanaka et al., 2003; Saggini et al., 2006). These vibrations applied to muscle bellies and tendons cause the “vibration tonic reflex” characterized by an improvement in power contraction of the stimulated muscles. Adaptations caused by the vibration tonic reflex involve particularly the superior motor centers of the neuromuscular apparatus (Pasetti & Ferriero, 2008). These responses are characterized by an improvement in the neural stimulation that permits recruitment of a wider number of muscular fibers. The high-intensity focused vibratory stimulation has been shown capable of increasing the strength and muscular endurance. The ViSS is a is a multi-frequency system which reaches 300Hz and an amplitude of 200 mbar which uses focalized mecchanic-sound vibrations. The treated muscles in our study were: the rectus femoris, vastus medialis and lateral abdominal and back muscles, the glutes, the tibialis anterior muscle and the plantar fascia. - Active stretching 2 sessions/week (10 min) for 4 months, particularly involving the extensor muscles. - VRRS (Virtual Reality Rehabilitation System, Khymeya Padova) 2 session/week for 4 months. The VRRS used in the protocol is derived from a method of treatment in neuromotor virtual environment, using the most advanced knowledge of the neurophysiological processes of learning, centralitation and memory of the movement. It has been long proved that, through the rehabilitation in a virtual environment, the central nervous system receives feedback signals increased (augmented feedback) which, during the execution of voluntary movements, even if altered by the disease, induces profound changes in cortical and subcortical at the cellular and synaptic, increase knowledge and awareness of its performance with an improvement in motor activity. Technically, the VRRS generates a weak magnetic field consistent, inside which are recognized in real time the position and the


306

inclination of small position sensors passive 3D, completely harmless. These sensors, which are applied to the affected part of the patient, or to objects of daily use, allow you to play within advanced virtual scenarios, the movements made by the patient, who is asked to imitate in real time the movement ideal pre- registered by the therapist. The sensors can reproduce objects, individual segments or the entire body of the patient, allowing the most various rehabilitation approaches, including those more complex such as walking, balance, compensation, as well as issues of cognitive order.

Activating the mode of "Interaction Dynamics ", you are allowing the patient to interact with everyday objects, because of their specific properties such as weight, mass, elasticity, allowing you to perform exercises that replicate faithfully activities typical of everyday life.

Patients were clinically examined at baseline, every moths during the 4-months treatment, and at 1 month after the end of treatment. The series of test involved: Two different types of digital measurement have been used. They are: - Digital biometrics called D.B.I.S (Digital Biometry Images Scanning) (Diasu, Roma, Italy); The use of digital biometric measurements has allowed mainly the observation of structural characteristics of the human body: biometric examination allows a thourough study of body structure (morphological investigation related to baropodometry static), the motor function (baropodometry dynamic) and receptor activity (stabilometry). The morphological analysis allows to evaluate visually and to quantify numerically the possible asymmetries of a patient compared to the position of reference. The position is studied on three projections: frontal (anterior and posterior), sagittal (right and left side) and transverse (from the top). -Myometry (Diagnostic Support, Roma, Italy) (Simons & Mense, 2003); The myoton is a patented, portable (<0.5 kg), noninvasive method, to measure the mechanical properties of muscles: tone, elasticity and strength. The Tone is the mechanic tension in the muscle which cannot be diminished voluntarily. The Elasticity is the ability of the muscle to regain its initial shape after a mechanical alteration. It is an index of the health condition of the muscle. The Stiffness is the ability of the muscle to resist to changes in its shape by external forces, and it is linked to the resistance provoked by the antagonist muscles. - Scale Assessment: Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Hoehn and Yahr Staging, Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). Statistical analysis

The data collected after each evaluation have been analyzed and compared through a statistical analysis, which has been elaborated using the Student Test modified for coupled samples. The value of significance has been setted on p<0.05. Results

Stabilometry test after the treatment showed a significant improvement of the distribution of the load in percentage as compared to pre-treatment condition.


307

Fig.1 Total load

Statistical results on the total load (%) on covered by the foots showed a significant interaction between the side (right and left foot) and the evaluation session (p < 0.01).

During the treatment and after 15 days follow-up, the distribution of the total load was not different between the left and the right foot, indicating a better distribution of the body weight between the two hemisomata.

The morphological analysis allowed us to evaluate and quantify the possible asymmetries in a patient compared with the position of reference. An improvement of the relation between cervical, thoracic and lumbar arrows was evidenced, producing a better postural alignment of the patient, and a reduction of the dysmetria between the two hemisomata. In fact, the reduction of arrows (p < 0.05) showed a better postural alignment and a minor trunk anterior flexion, producing a better stability, thus contrasting the typical camptocormia (Litvan et al., 1996). This postural improvement persists also in the follow-up phase after 30 days (p < 0.05). After the treatment is documented the reduction the sway area in all subjects (p <0.05).(Fig.2)

Fig.2 Sway area

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

P R E T1 T2 T3 P OS T F U15gg F U30gg

T OT AL E C AR IC O (%)

DX

S X

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40


S UP E R F IC IE E L L IS S E (mm2)

OA

OC

SWAY AREA (mm2)

TOTAL LOAD (%)


308

Fig.3 The time of the foot contact to the ground

Baropodometric dynamics showed a reduction of the time of the foot contact to the

ground, with a consequent raise of the walking speed at the end of treatment (POST) as compared to baseline (p = 0.02), which persisted also in the follow-up phase (p = 0.05).(fig.3 and fig.4)

Fig.4 Raise of the walking speed

An increase of the semilength of the step (cm) during walking was evident by the end

of treatment (POST) respect to the baseline (p < 0.001) and persisted at one month after the treatment (p < 0.001), highlighting a reduction of the base of support and consequently more stability.(fig 5)

0

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

1

1,2

1,4


T E MP O DI C ONT AT T O DX (s ec )

0

0,1

0,2

0,3

0,4

0,5

0,6

0,7

0,8

P R E T1 T2 T3 P OS T F U15 F U30

VE L OC IT A' (m/s )

DX

S X

FOOT CONTACT dx (sec)

SPEED (m/sec)


309

Fig.5 The increase of the semilength of the step (cm) during walking

The average pressure (gr/cm2) improved, due to a more balanced redistribution of the load between the two hemisomata (p < 0,05); as confirmed by the static baropodometry.(fig.6)

Fig.6 The average pressure (gr/cm2) between the two hemisomata during gait analysis

The muscular tone increased in rectus femoris, tibialis anterior and gluteus. The tone

of biceps femoris decreased; this can be anyway considered positively, because the patient affected by Parkinsonism tends to use mainly flexor muscles of the leg (biceps femoris) to maintain the balance in standing position, contrarily to a healthy subject, who utilizes more the activation of extensor muscles of the leg (Dietz et al., 1993)

Berg Balance Scale (BBS) score varied from a 37.7±12.1 at the baseline to a score of 47,6±9.2 at the end of treatment (p = 0.02). The improvement in the score of the Berg Balance Scale showed an improvement in terms of balance and therefore a reduction in the risk of falling.

The results of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale for a global evaluation of the patient (UPDRS) are the following:

05

1015202530354045

P R E T1 T2 T3 P OS T F U15 F U30

S E MIP AS S O (c m)

DX

S X

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800


P . Med (g r/c m2)

DX

S X

SEMISTEP LENGTH (cm)


310

Conclusion

Postural instability and risk of falling are two fundamental aspects with severely affect in the quality of life of patients with Parkinson's disease and, in such patients, it can be said that the rehabilitation treatment must be introduced early and may compensate for the lack of the pharmacological effects or integrate its.

PD patients have impaired neurophysiological integration processes, especially of proprioceptive signals needed to form an internal representation of body movements and to implement compensatory measures in response to postural perturbations or external conditions that affect balance.

The development of research in the use of strategies that can by pass these circuits deficit , in addition to the visual cues, including auditory stimulation to achieve a sort of re -training in patients Parkinson's disease.

The auditory cue can be the “beep” sound of a metronome or a song.

18,5

19

19,5

20

20,5

T0 T4

UP DR S Motor S c ore T ot

0

0,20,40,60,8

11,21,4

T0 T4

UP DR S Motor S c ore P os ture item

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

T0 T4

UP DR S Motor S c ore P os tural S tability item


311

The auditory stimulation, in the form of Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation (SUR) has found increasing favor over the past 10 years and appears to be very promising therapeutic and, with it, the use of metronomes.

In several studies it was observed that PD patients were able to adjust their gait to a rhythmic pulse of 10 % faster than their reference values, significantly improving speed and stride length (Cunnington, 1995; McIntosh, 1994 & 1997).

The improvements were still evident in the immediate short term even in the absence of stimulation, and those patients who exercised daily with SUR, showed the most significant and enduring improvements in walking compared to those patients who performed the same exercise program without SUR. Execution of the movement in PD patients is not regular because they are not provided with adequate internal rhythmic stimuli (Phillips, 1994).

The protocol tested in this study showed, with its results, which is rehabilitation through the SPAD system associated with auditory cue, VISS and active streatching and VRRS (Virtual Reality Rehabilitation System) can improve posture and gait quality of patients with Parkinson's disease.

The greater stability improves the kinematic and kinetic characteristics of gait and lowers the risk of falls.

These results are derived to the fact that SPAD works by correcting the asymmetry of body and allows to modify the adjustments asymmetric gait, by means of a vertical movement of the center of gravity of the subject, sufficient to allow a more normal gait, appearance of fundamental importance in Parkinson. The system also works with a dual action, of mechanical type, allowing a retraining with neuromotor forms of learning cortico subcortical face to again a schema body in balance which minimizes the energy consumption necessary for the regaining of balance and posture and proprioceptive acting on maintaining the adaptations induced over time and related to automatic gait.

With Vibratory Stimulation (VISS) can reach frequencies of 300Hz. In this way, it may stimulate different receptors in muscle and skin is of a mechanical type that proprioceptive (Pacino corpuscles, Golgi tendon organs, mechanoreceptors of type II muscle spindle -IV), leading to a Long Term Potentiation (increase in strength of synaptic transmission with increase of neuronal plasticity), obtaining an increase in the contractile capacity, elasticity, and the recruitment of the fibers of the musculo-skeletal tissue, and ultimately improve the postural stability in PD patients. References: Abbruzzeze G., Berardelli A. Sensorimotor integration in movement disorders. Mov Disord. 2003; 18:231-240. Agostino R, Sanes JN, Hallet M. Motor skill learning in Parkinson’s disease. J Neurol Sci. 1996; 139:218-226. Alexander GM, Crutcher MD. Functional architecture of basal ganglia circuits: neural substrates of parallel processing. Trends Neurosci. 1990; 13:266 –271. Barbeau H., Visintin M. Optimal outcomes obtained with body-weight support combined with treadmill training in stroke subjects. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2003; 84:1458-65. Benatru I, Vaugoyeau M, Azulay JP. Postural disorders in Parkinson's disease.Neurophysiol Clin. 2008 Dec;38(6):459-65. Epub 2008 Aug. Bhatia KP, Marsden CD. The behavioural and motor consequences of focal lesions of the basal ganglia in man. Brain, 1994; 117(pt4):859-876. Bloem BR, Beckley DJ, Van Dijk JG, Zwinderman AH, Remler MP, Roos RAC. Influence of dopaminergic medication on automatic postural responses and balance impairment in Parkinson’s disease. Movement Disord 1996; 11:509-21.


312

Bosco C, Iacovelli M, Tsarpela O, Cardinale M, Bonifazi M, Tihanyi J, Viru M, De Lorenzo A, Viru A. “Hormonal responses to whole-body vibration in men” Eur J Appl Physiol. 2000 Apr;81(6):449-54. Burke D, Hagbart LKE, Wallin BG. Reflex mechanisms in parkinsonian rigidity. Scand J Rehabil Med. 1977;9:15–23. Cannon S. E., Rues JP, Melnick ME, Guess D. “Head-erect behaviour among three preschool aged children with cerebral palsy” Phys Ther 1987 67:1198-204. D’Amico M. et al. Riabilitazione della locomozione mediante sistemi di allevio programmato del carico corporeo associato a treadmill: una esperienza pilota. Eur Med Phys 2004; 40(suppl.1 to No.3):839-43. Dessy LA, Monarca C, Grasso F, Saggini A, Buccheri EM, Saggini R, Scuderi N. The use of mechanical acoustic vibrations to improve abdominal contour. Aesthetic Plast Surg. 2008 Mar;32(2):339-45. Enzensberger W, Oberlander U, Stecker K. Metronome therapy in patients with Parkinson disease Nervenarzt 1997;68:972–7. Evidence-Based Analysis Of Physical Therapy In Parkinson’s Disease With Recommendations For Practice And Research. Viewpoint.Movement Disorders Vol 22 N 4 2007 pp 451-460. Frascarelli M. Neurofisiopatologia in Riabilitazione. Edizione Minerva Medica, Torino 2003. G Goede CJ, de, Keus SH, Kwakkel G, Wagenaar RC. The effects of physical therapy in Parkinson’s disease: a research synthesis. ArchPhys Med Rehabil 2001;82:509–515. Giladi N, Kao R, Fahn S. Freezing phenomenon in patients with parkinsonian syndromes. Mov Disord. 1997;12:302–305. Giladi N, McDermott MP, Fahn S, et al. Freezing of gait in PD: prospective assessment in the DATATOP color. Neurology. 2001; 56:1712-1721. Giladi N, McMahon D, Przedborski S, Flaster E, Guillory S, Kostic V, Fahn S . Motor blocks in Parkinson's disease. Neurology 1992;42:333-9. Halsband U, Ito N, Tanji J, Freund HJ. The role of premotor cortex and the supplementary motor area in the temporal control of movement in man. Brain. 1993 Feb;116 (Pt 1):243-66. Hendriks HJM, Bekkering GE, van Ettekoven H, Brandsma JW,van der Wees PhJ, de Bie RA. Development and implementation of national practice guidelines: a prospect for continuous quality improvement in physiotherapy. Introduction to the method of guideline development. Physiotherapy 2000;86:535–547.12. Hesse S. Locomotor therapy in neurorehabilitation. Neurorehabilitation 2001;16:133-9. Honda H, Koiwa Y, Takishima T. “Mathematical model of the effects of mechanical vibration on cross bridge kinetics in cardiac muscle” Jpn Circ J. 1994 Jun;58(6):416-25. Horak FB, Nutt JG, Nashner LM. Postural inflexibility in Parkinsonian subjects. J Neurol Sci 1992; 111:46-58. Issurin VB. “Vibrations and their applications in sport” A review J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2005 Sep;45(3):324-36. Jankovic J, Nutt JG, Sudarsky L. Classification, diagnosis, and etiology of gait disorders. In: Ruzicka E, Hallet M, Jankovic J, eds. Advances in Neurology: Volume 87, Gait Disorders. Philadelphia, Pa: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2001:119–133. Jobjes M, Heuschkel G, Pretzel C, Illhardt C, Renner C, Hummelsheim H. Repetitive training of compensatory steps: a therapeutic approach for postural instability in Parkinson’s disease. J Neural Neurosurg Psychiatry 2004; 75:1682-1687. Jürgen Konczak, D M. Corcos, F Horak, H Poizner, M Shapiro, P T Jens,Volkmann, M Maschke. Proprioception and Motor Control in Parkinson‘s Disease Journal of Motor Behavior, Vol. 41, No. 6, 2009. Karnath HO, Konczak J, Dichgans J. “Effect of prolonged neck muscle vibration on lateral head tilt in severe spasmodic torticollis” J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2000 69:658-660.


313

Lundeberg T, Nordemar R, Ottoson D. “Pain alleviation by vibratory stimulation” Pain. 1984 Sep;20(1):25-44. Marchese R, Diverio M, Zucchi F, Lentino C, Abruzzeze G. The role of sensory cues in the rehabilitation of Parkinsonian patients: a comparison of two physical therapy protocols. Mov. Disord 2000;15:789-83. Matthews PB. “The reflex excitation of the soleus muscle of the decerebrate cat caused by vibration applied to its tendon” J Physiol. 1966 May;184(2):450-72. Milner-Brown HS, Stein RB, Lee RG. “Synchronization of human motor units: possible roles of exercise and supraspinal reflexes” Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1975 Mar;38(3):245-54. Miyai I, Fujimoto Y, Ueda Y, Yamamoto H, Nozaki S, Saito T, Kang J. Treadmill training with body weight support: its effect on Parkinson‘s disease. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2000; 81: 849-852. Morris ME, Iansek R, Matyas TA, Summers JJ Stride length regulation in Parkinson's disease. Normalization strategies and underlying mechanisms Brain. 1996;119(Pt 2): 551-68. Morris ME, Iansek R, Summers JJ, Matyas TA. Motor control considerations for the rehabilitation of gait in Parkinson‘s disease. In: Glencross DJ, Piek JP, editors. Motor control and sensory motor integration: issues and directions. Amsterdam: Elsevier;1995. p. 61–93. Nieuwboer A, Kwakkel G, Rochester L, Jones D, van Wegan E, WillemsAM, Chavret F, Hetherington V, Baker K, Lim I: Cueing training in the home improves gait-related mobility in Parkinson's disease: the RESCUE trial. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2007, 78:134-140. Perry J. Gait Analysis – Normal and pathological Function Slack Inc. 1992. Pietrangelo T, Mancinelli R, Toniolo L, Cancellara L, Paoli A, Puglielli C, Iodice P, Doria C, Bosco G, D'Amelio L, di Tano G, Fulle S, Saggini R, Fanò G, Reggiani C. Effects of local vibrations on skeletal muscle trophism in elderly people: mechanical, cellular, and molecular events. Int J Mol Med. 2009 Oct;24(4):503-12. Jobges M, Heuschkel G, Pretzel C, Illhardt C, Renner C, Hummelsheim H. Repetitive training of compensatory steps: a therapeutic approach for postural instability in Parkinson‘s disease. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2004;75:1682–1687. Robertson C, Flowers KA. Motor set in Parkinson‘s disease. J. Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1990;53:583–92. Rosenkranz K, Rothwell JC. “Differential effect of muscle vibration on intracortical inhibitory circuits in humans”. J Physiol 2003;551(2):649-660. Rosenkranz K, Rothwell JC. “The effect of sensory input and attention on the sensor motor organization of the hand area of the human motor cortex”. J Physiol 2004;561(1):307-320. Saggini R, Scuderi N, Bellomo RG, Dessy RA, Cancelli F, Iodice P. Selective development of muscolar force in rehabilitative context. Eur.Med.Phys. 2006;42(suppl.1):69-7. Saggini R, Vecchiet J, Iezzi S, Racciatti D, Affaitati G, Bellomo RG, Pizzigallo E. Submaximal aerobic exercise with mechanical vibrations improves the functional status of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. Eura Medicophys. 2006 Jun;42(2):97-102. Saggini R., Cancelli F., Di Bonaventura V., Bellomo R.G., Pezzatini A., Carniel R. Efficacy of two microgravitational protocols to treat chronic low back pain associated with discal lesions: a randomized controller trial. Eur Med Phys 2004; 40:311-6. Seidel H. “Myoelectric reactions to ultra-low frequency and low-frequency whole body vibration”. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1988;57(5):558-62. Tanaka SM, Li J, Duncan RL, Yokota H, Burr DB, Turner CH. “Effects of broad frequency vibration on cultured osteoblasts”. J Biomech. 2003 Jan;36(1):73-80. Thaut MH, McIntosh GC, Rice RR, Miller RA, Rathbun J, Brault JM. Rhythmic auditory stimulation in gait training for Parkinson‘s disease patients. Mov Disord 1996;11:193–200.


314

Vaugoyeau M, Viel S, Assaiante C, Amblard B, Azulay. Impaired vertical postural control and proprioceptive integration deficits in Parkinson's disease. JP Neuroscience. 2007 May 11;146(2):852-63. Epub 2007 Mar 23. Visintin M., Barbeau H. The effect of body weight support on the locomotor pattern of spastic paretic patient. Physical and Occupational Therapy, 1989; 16:315-325.


315

A PROPOSED SECURITY ARCHITECTURE FOR ESTABLISHING PRIVACY DOMAINS IN E-HEALTH CLOUD

Al-Khanjari, Z. Al-Ani, A.

Al-Hermizy, S. Department of Computer Science, College of Science, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman

Abstract Information and communication technology (ICT) are becoming a natural part in

healthcare. Instead of keeping patient information inside a written file, you can find all information stored in an organized database as well defined files using a specific system in almost every hospital. But those files sometimes got lost or information was split up in files in different hospitals or different departments so no one could see the whole picture from this point we come up with our idea. One of this paper targets is to keep that information available on the cloud so doctors and nurses can have an access to patient record everywhere, so patient history will be clear which helps doctors in giving the right decision. We present security architecture for establishing privacy domains in e-Health bases. In this case, we will improve the availability of medical data and provide the ability for patients to moderate their medical data. Moreover, e-Health system in cloud computing has more than one component to be attacked. The other target of this paper is to distinguish between different kinds of attackers and we point out several shortcomings of current e-Health solutions and standards, particularly they do not address the client platform security, which is a crucial aspect for the overall security of e-Health systems. To fill this gap, we present security architecture for establishing privacy domains in e-Health infrastructures. Our solution provides client platform security and appropriately combines this with network security concepts.

Keywords: ICT, Healthcare, e-Health, database, cloud computing, security, curious person Introduction

In the past, information about patients, the illnesses they have had, when they had operations and what medicines they took was written down and kept in files inside hospitals where they have been treated. The problem was that files got lost in different hospitals and doctors cannot get a clear picture about patient’s history.

Information systems are now being updated to help to improve healthcare services for all patients. This is to make sure that doctors, nurses and other health professionals have the information that is important to help them to make the best decisions about the patient, their illness and their treatment [7]. Hans and colleagues [1] explored the point out several shortcomings of current e-Health solutions and standards; particularly they do not address the client platform security, which is a crucial aspect for the overall security of e-Health systems. The solution provides client platform security and appropriately combines this with network security concepts. Moreover, Hans and colleagues further discuss open problems and research challenges on security, privacy and usability of e-Health Cloud systems. Henry and colleagues [2] described the presentation of a patient assessment tool compliant with European standards (CEN EN13606, TS14796), and using terminologies describing patient outcomes (C-HOBIC) and nursing practices (ICNP). The demonstration includes the capture of data from assessment forms, and the generation of data views specific to the interests of health service providers and the patient. Barua and Liang [3] proposed an Efficient and a Secure Patient-centric Access


316

Control (ESPAC) scheme which allows data requesters to have different access privileges based on their roles, and then assigns different attribute sets to them. Extensive security and performance analyses demonstrate that the ESPAC scheme is able to achieve desired security requirements with acceptable communication delay. Gunter and Terry [4] designed a system to represent data that accurately captures the state of the patient at all times. It allows for an entire patient history to be viewed without the need to track down the patient’s previous medical record volume and assists in ensuring data is accurate, appropriate and legal. It reduces the chances of data replication as there is only one modifiable file, which means that the file is constantly up to date when viewed at a later date and eliminates the issue of lost forms or paperwork. Due to all the information being in a single file, it makes it much more effective when extracting medical data for the examination of possible trends and long term changes in the patient. Marcio and colleagues [9] presented ClinMalDB, a database system that integrates clinical histories of malaria patients, samples obtained from them, and sequence information of coding genes and includes the technical description of the database, the parameters used to evaluate clinical data of patients, a pre-annotation sequence analysis pipeline service of virulent subtelomeric genes, cube views of the current database, a web-based structure for access and update and an interactive page to illustrate sequence search based on clinical data. The proposed architecture is based on the project of modularization, which divide the whole database into four system levels.

Zhang and colleagues [10] identified a set of security requirements for e-Health application Clouds and proposed a novel security model. This model is mainly designed for the sharing of Electronic Health Records (EHR), while the DACAR platform aims to support the development, integration and large scale deployment of a wider range of e-Health services. Kilic and colleagues [11] proposed to share EHRs among multiple e-Health communities over a peer-to-peer network. A super-peer is used to represent an e-Health community, which is responsible for routing messages and adapting different meta data vocabularies used by different communities. This super-peer design is similar to a Single Point of Contact (SPoC) of the DACAR platform, yet a SPoC provides more authentication and authorisation functionalities. For a patient-centric e-Health platform it is crucial to obtain various patients’ consents in an electronic way.

This paper proposes a security architecture for establishing privacy domains in e-Health infrastructures. The paper will discuss security aspects that need to be taken into consideration in the context of e-Health system in cloud computing and provide a rigorous security analysis. Moreover, the paper discusses new methods that can be applied to e-Health systems to counteract the identified threats and thus to establish a very high level of security. The proposal of personal health system is a digital collection of all pertinent medical data of a person that is under control of the subject of care an individual. These data is either entered by the individual or contributed by other information systems. The system proposal could be used to improve the availability of medical data and to provide a comfortable possibility for patients to moderate their medical data. Moderation comprises not only the management of medical data but also the task of granting access to medical data to other parties.

The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 explains the model of the e-Health Cloud and its relation to medicine, healthcare and information technology and what types of the cloud Service Models and the deployment model for a cloud computing and what the characteristics of e-Health. Section 3 discusses about the Electronic Health Record (EHR) and the difference between the terms EHR, EPR (Electronic Patient Record) and EMR (Electronic Medical Record) and the Benefits of EHR in cloud computing and what the barriers and challenges of e-Health Cloud and the stages of e-Health Cloud. Section 4 describes the purpose of the development of e-Health system in cloud computing and also explains the different types of attacks in cloud computing and the Enhanced Security


317

Properties of e-Health Cloud and the privacy domains for e-Health. Section 5 provides concluding remarks of the work.

Model of the e-Health Cloud

Everyone is talking about cloud computing today, but not everyone mean the same thing when they do. While there is this general idea behind the cloud – that applications or other business functions exist somewhere away from the business itself – there are many iterations that companies are looking for in order to actually use the technology. Cloud computing offers a variety of ways for businesses to increase their IT capacity or functionality without having to add infrastructure, personnel, and software in their business. Also, cloud computing is available 24/7, which allows people to work when they want to, not restricting them to office hours only [15].

Service Models

According to the different types of services offered, cloud computing can be considered to consist of three layers [12]:

• Cloud Software-as-a-Service (SaaS): This provides the use of applications running on the cloud provider’s infrastructure. These services can be accessed from any heterogeneous system or any interface. These services may be defined with exception of limited user specific usage.

• Product-as-a-Service (PaaS): This provides development platform for the user to develop applications using the tools provided by the PaaS provider.

• Cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS): This provides the consumer the capability to provision processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources. This way enables the consumer to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications [13, 14].

Deployment Models

Each company chooses a deployment model for a cloud computing solution based on their specific business, operational, and technical requirements. There are four primary cloud deployment models listed as follows:

• Public Cloud: This is the deployment model that is most commonly described as cloud computing. In this model, all of the physical resources are owned and operated by a third party cloud computing provider.

• Private Cloud: This model describes computer services that are delivered to a single organization.

• Community Cloud: This model contains features of both the public and the private cloud models.

• Hybrid Cloud: This model employs aspects of all other cloud models and it is the most commonly found cloud deployment model used within large organizations [16].

E-Health Characteristics

E-Health Cloud computing exhibits the following key characteristics [17]: • Improves users' ability to re-provision technological infrastructure resources. • Offers Application Programming Interface (API) accessibility to software that enables

machines to interact with cloud software in the same way as the user interface facilitates interaction between humans and computers.

• Claims the reduction of the computing cost, since in a public cloud delivery model capital expenditure is converted to operational expenditure.


318

• Provides device and location independence. This enables users to access systems using a web browser regardless of their location or what device they are using (e.g., PC, mobile phone).

• Uses virtualization technology that allows servers and storage devices to be shared and utilization to be increased. Applications can easily be migrated from one physical server to another.

E-Health Services

This term parenthesizes range of services or a system that has relation to medicine, healthcare and information technology, including [5]: Electronic Health Records: enable the communication of patient data between different healthcare professionals (GPs, specialists etc.);

• E-Prescribing: enable access to prescribing options, printing prescriptions to patients and sometimes electronic transmission of prescriptions from doctors to pharmacists;

Telemedicine: provide physical and psychological treatments at a distance, including telemonitoring of patient’s functions; Consumer health Informatics: use of electronic resources on medical topics by healthy individuals or patients; Health knowledge Management: access to knowledge, information, experience and best practice in health and social care, overview of latest medical journals, best practice guidelines or epidemiological tracking; Virtual Healthcare Teams: consist of healthcare professionals who collaborate and share information on patients through digital equipment; M-Health: include the use of mobile devices in collecting aggregate and patient level health data, providing healthcare information to practitioners, researchers, and patients, real-time monitoring of patient vitals, and direct provision of care (via mobile telemedicine); Medical Research Using Grids: provide powerful computing and data management capabilities to handle large amounts of heterogeneous data; Healthcare Information Systems: offer software solutions for appointment scheduling, patient data management, work schedule management and other administrative tasks surrounding health. Electronic Health Record (EHR)

An electronic health record (EHR) is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users. Digitized health information systems are expected to improve efficiency and quality of care and, ultimately, reduce costs. The EHR typically includes:

• Contact information. • Information about visits to health care professionals. • Allergies. • Insurance information. • Family history. • Immunization status. • Information about any conditions or diseases. • A list of medications. • Records of hospitalization. • Information about any surgeries or procedures performed.


319

Benefits of EHR • The ability to automatically share and update information among different offices and

organizations. • More efficient storage and retrieval. • The ability to share multimedia information, such as medical imaging results, among

locations. • The ability to link records to sources of relevant and current research. • Easier standardization of services and patient care. • Provision of decision support systems (DSS) for healthcare professionals. • Less redundancy of effort. • Lower cost to the medical system once implementation is complete.

Although differences between the terms EHR, EPR and EMR can be defined, they are often used interchangeably. The EMR can, for example, be defined as the patient record created in hospitals and ambulatory environments. It can serve as a data source for the EHR. It is important to note that an EHR is generated and maintained within an institution. These institutions could be a hospital, integrated delivery network, clinic, or physician office. They are used to give patients, physicians and other health care providers, employers, and payers the ability to access patient's medical records across facilities. In modern parlance, a personal health record (PHR) is generally defined as an EHR that the individual patient controls [6]. Health data are very sensitive and need to be protected against misuse by unauthorized persons. Additionally, services which provide online access to health data are even more attractive to attackers. An electronic health record (EHR) is an evolving concept defined as a systematic collection of electronic health information about individual patients or populations. It is a record in digital format that is theoretically capable of being shared across different health care settings. In some cases this sharing can be afforded by network-connect enterprise-wide information systems and other information networks or exchanges. EHRs may include a range of data, including demographics, medical history, medication and allergies, immunization status, laboratory test results, radiology images, vital signs, personal statistics like age and weight, and billing information [4]. Barriers and Challenges of e-Health Cloud

• According to case studies from different countries, there are many challenges and issues that need to be addressed for a successful implementation of e-Health Cloud. Security and privacy of information are other serious technical challenges. Challenges are identified as follows [18]:

• IT Infrastructural weakness plus Lack of qualified personnel and training courses. • Lack of knowledge about the e-Health program. • Lack of security and privacy of information plus Lack of strategic plans. • Lack of policy and regulation for e-usage and Lack of partnership and collaboration. • Resistance to change to e-Health Cloud Systems as well as the shortage of financial

resources. Stages of e-Health Cloud

In order to accomplish e-Health Cloud initiatives, there must be a phased approach applied to the infrastructure Development which transforms an initial e-Health Cloud initiative into final desired service. The following are the four stages of e-Health Cloud, which in most cases follow each other [19].

• Present the work on the Web: The first stage on any e-Health Cloud is marked by its presence on the web which acts as a common place for distributing information to the


320

public. It is the most basic part of any e-Health Cloud system and has limited capabilities.

• Interact with Citizen and Governments: The second stage is marked by the presence of an interactive web interface where some kinds of communication occur between government and its citizens through the web.

• Complete Transaction over Web: The stage involves transaction between a citizen and government being completed over the internet.

• Integrate Services: This is the highest level of any e-Health Cloud where technology is utilized to its full potential [20].

E-Health System in Cloud Computing

First of all we will discuss the components of the e-Health system in cloud computing that can be attacked such as the e-Health Cloud system, the communication channel and the patient’s client (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Attackers in Context of e-Health Cloud System We distinguish between three different kinds of attackers:

Internal attackers: who have authorized access to network resources [8], e.g. operators of the system or medical staff, conduct attacks mainly against the e-Health system; these attacks are solely prevented by means of organizational measures when designing security concepts of e-Health systems in cloud computing.

External adversaries: they are usually considered when discussing security in context of e-Health systems. These adversaries can either behave actively, e.g. hackers, or passively, e.g. eavesdroppers. In contrast, to passive adversaries, who are only wiretapping the communication channel, active adversaries also manipulate transferred and stored data. It must be pointed out that, in general, it is easier for an insider to get unauthorized access to medical data than for an external adversary. Consequently, in order to establish a reliable security concept for an e-Health system in cloud computing, insider attacks need to be taken into consideration as carefully as external attacks.

Curious Person: this is introduced as a third kind of adversaries which has not been considered in architectures for e-Health system in cloud computing until now. These attackers will be denoted as “curious persons” in this paper.

A person who is trying to attack the e-Health system in cloud computing is an “attacker” who tries to obtain medical information about a person by influencing this person to present the medical data on their own. The relevance of attacks conducted by curious persons cannot be evaluated seriously. However, in our opinion this attack needs to be taken into consideration, since it cannot be excluded. This attack can be achieved by means of more

Attacker


321

or less sophisticated methods. The former methods mainly comprise methods from social engineering, e.g. a curious person may convince a patient to hand out his login credentials to him. These attacks can only be prevented by raising awareness during security trainings. It must be noted that technical measures cannot be used to counter these attacks, since the attacked person does not perceive the situation as an attack.

Having identified security threats in e-Health system based on the security analysis in cloud computing, it is possible to define security properties which counter these threats. Thereby, we distinguish between basic and enhanced security properties. The basic security properties are those which are well known from standard security books on information systems and computer security. These comprise authentication and authorization, availability, confidentiality and integrity of data and are absolutely necessary in context of e-Health systems. However, it must be emphasized that these properties mainly protected against external adversaries but marginally against internal ones and not at all against curious persons. Therefore, it is inevitable to define enhanced properties to increase the level of security regarding the latter two groups of adversaries.

Enhanced Security Properties of e-Health Cloud

These comprise anonymity, deniability and unlink ability. We will briefly discuss these properties. 1. Anonymity: Frequently referred to as "buffer overruns," .This type of attack seeks to

connect anonymously to a service and then elevate the attacker's privileges on the system to that of a valid user or an administrator. This type of attack exploits a weakness in the server code allowing attackers to execute arbitrary code that they've sent to the service. The code elevates their privileges and allows them to gain direct access [21]. Anonymity is often referred to as the property of being not identified with respect to a set of actions inside a group of people, the so called anonymity set. Intuitively the degree of anonymity is the higher, the larger the anonymity set is and the more uniformly the actions are distributed within this set.

2. Considering an e-Health Cloud system we can define anonymity at three different levels. 3. Anonymous communication: This type is guaranteed, if an observer is not able to

determine a communication relationship between two communicating parties by means of information revealed by the communication channel.

4. Sender-receiver anonymity: A communication relationship between a sender and receiver provides sender-anonymity, if the receiver is not able to identify the sender by means of received messages.

5. Data anonymity: A system provides data anonymity, if data stored in the system of the receiver and related to a specific sender cannot be linked to the sender by the receiver and any other person.

6. Deniability: In context of medical data the term deniability means that an adversary is not able to prove the existence of medical data related to a specific person. This means that a patient can plausibly deny the existence of any medical data of his PHR and even internal adversaries are not able to figure out the existence of patient’s data. For instance, a patient can hide highly compromising information from a curious person who conducts a disclosure attack [22].

7. Unlinkability: Unlinkability of items of interest means that relations between items, where a priori exist, cannot be identified through pure observation of the system. A system containing n users provides perfect unlink ability, if the relation of an object and a user exists with probability p =1/n for all objects. Hence, an insider of the system cannot gain any information on links between users and objects by means of solely observing the system [22].


322

Privacy Domains for E-Health In the context of e-Health, privacy protection of the patients' data is a primary concern.

Technological solutions should be employed to support legal and contractual regulations. We propose to construct privacy domains for the patients' medical data as a technical measure to support the enforcement of privacy and data protection policies: Systems (e.g., a client PC) must be able to partition execution environments for applications into separate domains that are isolated from each other. Data is kept within a privacy domain, and the domain infrastructure ensures that only authorized entities can join this domain. Moreover, data leakage from the domain is prevented by the security architecture and the domain infrastructure. Therefore, the same system can be used for different work flows that are strictly isolated. Figure 2, illustrates the privacy domains applied to our e-Health Cloud model.

Figure 2: Privacy Domains in the E-Health Cloud

Conclusion

The traditional healthcare model is changing significantly driven by an aging population, funding constraints, greater demand for care and a greater awareness of medical errors. The industry will increasingly turn to ICT to meet these challenges. By using the cloud computing technology in a healthcare the industry may considerably improve the access to information, which can be done faster and easier. The scalability, that is the key of the cloud computing, can offer more resources needed for certain operation at any time. The collaboration between healthcare units is an opportunity offered by cloud computing for healthcare staff. This technology can be used to check the availability of a physician, a medical specialist, a product or a service at different times and in different cases. In this paper, we have provided a security analysis of e-Health systems in cloud computing. We have introduced enhanced security properties for e-Health systems.They could enable the e-Health care services provider to reduce maintenance cost by moving data to cloud storage which provides anytime, anywhere access to patient information. We discussed methods to realize them. In our opinion these enhanced properties are of enormous relevance when realizing a reliable e-Health Cloud system. Currently, we are investigating how to efficiently integrate the proposed methods into existing approaches and we are developing more efficient solutions for anonymous authentication and unlinkability.


323

References: Hans, L., Sadeghi, A., & Winandy, M. Securing the E-Health Cloud. 1st ACM International Health Informatics Symposium. 2010. Camous, F., Duignan, F., & Henry, P. An Ehrcom-Compliant Assessment tool for Community Nursing in Ireland. IADIS International Conference e-Health, 2009. Barua, M., Liang, X. Enabling Security and Patient-centric Access Control for eHealth in cloud computing. Int. J. Security and Networks, Vol.1 IEEE INFOCOM’11-SCNC, 2011. Gunter, D., & Terry, Nicolas P. The Emergence of National Electronic Health Record Architectures in the United States and Australia: Models, Costs, and Questions. Journal of Medical Internet Research 7 (1), 2005. Fingberg, J. & Hansen, M. Integrating Data Custodians in eHealth Grids – Security and Habib, J. L. EHRs, meaningful use, and a model EMR. Drug Benefit Trends 22 (4): 99–101, ICT for Health, Information Communication Technology, Newsletter June 2012. Al-Khanjari, Z., Alanee, A., Kraiem, N. & Jamoussi, Y. Proposing a Real Time Internal Intrusion Detection System towards a Secured Development of E-Government Web Site. European Scientific Journal Vol.3, 2013. Marcio, K., Emilio, F., Merino, C. , & Gerhard, W. A clinical field research oriented relational database to study of human malaria, IADIS International Conference e-Health, Zhang, R. & Liu, L. Security Models and Requirements for Healthcare Kilic, O., Dogac, A. & Eichelberg, M. Providing Interoperability of eHealthCommunities Through Peer-to-Peer Networks, IEEE TITB, 14(3), pp. 846–853,2010. Goce, G. & Vladimir, T. Security and Privacy Issues and Requirements for Healthcare Cloud Computing, ICT Innovations 2012 Web Proceedings ISSN 1857-7288, 2013. Ravij, K., Nishant, S. & Sutaria, K. Ameliorate Security Policy Using Mediated RSA and Identity Based Cryptography in Cloud Computing , Journal of information, knowledge and research in computer engineering, 2, ISSN: 0975 – 6760, pp. 389, October, 2013. Singh, H. & Bansal, B. Analysis of security issues and performance enhancement in cloud Computing, International Journal of Information Technology and Knowledge Management, Malpani, G. Cloud Computing: Key to Business Fitness, Paripex - Indian Journal of Research, 3(4), ISSN - 2250-1991, May, 2013. Khaja, S., Khamruddin, M. & Krishna, K. An Overview of Data Security in Cloud Computing, International Journal of Advances in Computer, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, 2, ISSN: 2248-9584, December, 2012. Steve, G. Cloud Computing, Oxford University, England, International journal of Innovative Research in Engineering and Science, 1(1), ISSN 2319-5665, Nugi Nkwe, E-Government: Challenges and Opportunities in Botswana Department of Accounting and Finance University of Botswana Gaborone, Botswana International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 2(17); September 2012. Beji, S., Jamoussi, Y. & El Kadhi, N. : Towards context-awareness security for mobile applications, The International Conference on Service, Security and its Data management technologies in Ubi-com, IEEE, China, October 2010. Sami M. Alhomod and Mohd Mudasir Shafi: Best Practices in E government: A review of Some Innovative Models Proposed in Different Countries International Journal of Electrical Al-Ani, A. Real Time Internal Intrusion Detection in Web Site, Congress of Scientific Research Outlook in the Arab World “Scientific Innovation and Sustained Development, Slamanig, D. & Stingl, S., Sophisticated Methods To Prevent Insider Attacks Against Phr Systems, Iadis International Conference e-Health, 2009.


324

FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS: EXPLORATION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL AND NEUROLOGICAL FUNCTIONING

OF ELDERLY IN GILGIT & LAHORE, PAKISTAN

Najma Najam, Prof. Dr. Rabia Hussain Kanwal,

Karakoram International University, Gilgit Rukhsana Kausar, Prof. Dr.

Hira Fatima University of Punjab, Lahore,Pakistan

Abstract In Pakistan, elderly population has been neglected by the researchers and policy

makers alike and it has resulted in compromised quality of life of the ageing population. The present study examined the psychological and neurological functioning of the elderly in Gilgit & Lahore, Pakistan in order to explore and identify the illicit psychological, emotional, and cognitive problems and challenges encountered by the elderly using snow-ball and purposive sampling technique. These regions were selected for comparison as Lahore is highly urbanized, large city and Gilgit a small mountain bound valley. Ten focus group discussions had been conducted in two groups in Gilgit: 5 younger groups and 5 elderly groups (sample of 50; 25 elderly & 25 younger; 05 participants in each group). Whereas at Lahore side, 2 focus group discussions were conducted in Lahore: 1 younger group (8; 2 younger men & 6 younger women) and 1 elderly group (7 elderly); 4 indepth interviews were also conducted from 2 younger & 2 elderly in Lahore. Preliminary findings are reported. Findings suggest that the elderly play a very significant role in both Gilgit and Lahore societies and culture. Elderly were actively engaged in daily life activities such as community activities, domestic work, farming, breeding of domestic animals but with the passage of time their level of self-efficacy had decreased and negatively influencing short-term memory, intelligence, attention span, concentration as well as physical weaknesses in doing tasks. Lack of formal education of the elderly is also reported to be possibly a hindrance in understanding the context of youth. Younger responded that they do not feel comfortable to share matters with them as they have hierarchal relationship with their elders. Diverse responses were reported by younger group but they agreed to the point that elders were influential and decision makers of the society and honored as backbone of the society for transmission of culture and traditions. Elders expect from their young family members must realize their contribution to develop the sense of responsibility for their home, community, region and country as people of Gilgit have a high dependency on the natural environment, without access to many modern facilities due to remoteness and limited accessibility of this region. However, elders of Lahore expect from their family to spent time with them and take out some spare time for them from their busy materialistic life activities. This is the first attempt to understand the issues, the findings are expected to have implications for improving quality of life of the elderly, designing interventions, support system and rehabilitation services to help them. This project was funded by the Research Grant from Higher Education Commission to the first author, acknowledgement of all those involved in the data collection.

Keywords: Psychological, neurological, elderly, Gilgit


325

Introduction Elderly persons are an integral part of a society and due to the recent advancement in

medical sciences the elderly population is rising. In Pakistan, the elderly population has been neglected by the researchers and policy makers alike and it has resulted in compromised quality of life of the ageing population. The present project aims to examine psychological and neurological functioning of the elderly in Pakistan. The project entailed both qualitative and quantitative assessment and comprised of three independent studies. The current paper is preliminary based on first independet study. The project compared elderly population on psychological and neurological functioning from two regions of the country and it allowed examining differential impact of geographic regions carrying different value systems with varied economic status. I

Elderly persons are an integral part of a society and due to the recent advancement in medical sciences the elderly population is rising. Since Pakistan is in a demographic transition with relatively high fertility and mortality rates and increasing life expectancy, an increasing number of elderly people are becoming a major challenge to policy makers. With meager resources and a poor understanding of aging; Pakistan faces many challenges in caring for its elderly population. In Pakistan, the elderly population has been neglected by the researchers and policy makers alike and it has resulted in compromised quality of life of the ageing population. This review would help to understand the important implications for improving quality of life of the elderly, designing interventions, support system and rehabilitation services to help them preserve and maximize their existing functions.

Pakistan’s demographic trends show that between 1990 till 2010, the population aged 60+ years increased by75.1 %. It is projected that the life expectancy will increase to 72 years by 2023. WHO report (1998) projected that 5.6 % of Pakistan’s population was over 60 years of age, with a probability of doubling to 11 % by the year 2025 (Jalal & Younis, 2012). Undoubtedly, population aging will create new economic and social pressures. The government designed a National Policy for the health of the Elderly in 1999. This comprehensive policy included training of primary care doctors in geriatrics, provision of domiciliary care, dental care and a multi-tiered system of health care providers for elderly including social workers, physical therapists. Unfortunately implementation of this policy is still being awaited (Sabzwari & Azhar, 2010).

The disease burden in our elderly is high and some data is available regarding common diseases in the elderly. However, limited information exists regarding common geriatric syndromes. Elderly people in Pakistan lead a mainly inactive lifestyle which may play a significant role in immobility disorders, loss of muscle mass and falls, which are common geriatric syndromes (Baig, Hasan, & Iliyas, 2000) as well as neurological disorders such as cognitive dysfunctions, executive deficits (Dempster, 1992), memory impairments (Shimamura, 1994), visuoperceptual deficits, visual motor impairment, and language incompetency (Crawford, Venneri, & O’Corroll, 1998).

Evidence has shown that differing brain regions undergo contrary degrees of neuronal loss with age (Huppert & Kopelman, 1989). Numerous evidences indicated that age-related changes in the neuroanatomy and neurochemistry of the brain are more manifested in the frontal lobes than in other cortical areas (Fuster, 1989) and from demonstrations of age-related deficits on neuropsychological tasks sensitive to frontal dysfunction (Daigneault & Braun, 1993).

Executive deficits are thought to underlie many of the behavioral disturbances seen in neurological disorders associated with increasing age (Crawford, Venneri, & O’Corroll, 1998). It has been proposed that normal aging is associated with a selective decline in frontal executive function (Dempster, 1992). Daigneault, Braun, and Whitaker (1992), had been


326

suggested currently dominant neuropsychological model of normal brain aging postulates that cognitive functions dependent on the integrity of the prefrontal brain regions are among the first to deteriorate in elders. Therefore, in normal aging, given the frequency of occurrence of language disorders after degenerative neurological diseases associated with old age, language should be investigated in depth (Crawford, Venneri, & O’Corroll, 1998).

The emerging consequences of neurological functioning of ageing, especially in developing countries, need to be taken very seriously. Recognition of psychiatric symptoms and syndromes may be complicated by comorbid medical disorders, the attitudes of patients and physicians (Luber, Alexopoulos, Hollenberg, 1997; Cooper, Crum, & Ford, 1994), and other factors (Alexopoulos, Vrontou, & Kakuma, 1996; Bruce, Seeman, & Merrill, 1994; Arean & Miranda, 1996). Because psychopathology worsens the outcome of medical illnesses (Gallagher & Osgood, 1997) and promotes disability (Alexopoulos, 1996; Simon, Von Korff, & Barlow, 1995), recognition and treatment of geriatric psychiatric disorders may have a wide range of desirable outcomes (Klausner & Alexopoulos, 1999).

In Pakistan, very few studies have been conducted on psychological and neurological issues in elderly. With meager resources and a poor understanding of aging; Pakistan faces many challenges in caring for its elderly population (Sabzwari & Azhar, 2010). The present study has been conducted in Gilgit, a capital city of Gilgit–Baltistan (GB), Pakistan. It is highly mountainous and an autonomous self-governing region that was established as a single administrative unit in 1970, formed by the amalgamation of the Gilgit Agency, the Baltistan region. This region is isolated region and has its own social and community structure. There is only one road, Karakoram Highway (KKH) which connects the seven districts of GB with each other as well as to other cities of Pakistan. The present research aim to investigate and explore the challenges and issues or needs of elderly population by examining differential impact of geographic regions carrying different value systems with varied economic status. Method

This study is exploratory and qualitative in nature. The sample was drawn in two groups from Gilgit, Pakistan. The snow-ball sampling technique was used with the following inclusion criteria to draw a sample: For elderly group, the age of the participants was 65 years and above residing in Gilgit. For younger group, the participants belonged to family having senior citizens (at least two) and age was between 18-35 years. The elderly understand regional languages such as Shina, Brushushki and Urdu.

From Lahore, the sample was drawn in two focus groups and four indepth interviews. The purposive sampling technique was employed by considering following inclusion and exclusion criteria for selecting the sample: For elderly group and indepth interview, the age of the participants was 65 and above living in Lahore, participants easily speak, read, and understand Urdu language. For younger group and indepth interviews, the age of the participants was between 18 to 35 years, participants speak, read, and understand Urdu language and participants were residing with one of their grandparents. Assessment and Procedure

Ten focus group discussions had been conducted in two groups in Gilgit: five younger and five elderly. There were five participants in each group. The sample of both elderly and younger was 50 (25 elderly & 25 younger), selected from diverse places of Gilgit City.

In Lahore, two focus groups were conducted: one younger and one elderly. There were eight participants in elderly group while seven participants were in younger group. Four indepth interviews were conducted, two with each younger and elder participants. All participants were selected from diverse places of Lahore City.

Written informed consent of the participants obtained from those meeting inclusion criteria and willing to participate in the study. The checklist for two groups was developed


327

based on categories in order to address the issues such as economical, emotional, psychological, social, and cognitive issues of aging (please see appendix). The focus groups discussions were transcribed and the thematic analysis was carried out subsequent to these discussions. Analysis and Discussion

The present research study was exploratory and qualitative in nature. The results of the thematic analyses of focus groups and in-depth interviews’ transcripts are presented in separate sections. FGD Analysis of Elderly

The analysis of elderly group has been discussed on the basis of themes (subthemes) of FGD’s, in-depth interviews and the narratives of elderly. Some narratives were in regional languages such as Shina and Brushuski and translated in Urdu and English for the understanding purpose. Theme A: Social support of Elders

Elderly reported that they are satisfied with their life by having positive psychological wellbeing, social, economical, and community support plus actively engaged in daily life activities such as community activities, welfare tasks, domestic work, farming, livestock, breeding of domestic animals but with the passage of time their level of self-efficacy had decreased and negatively influencing short-term memory, intelligence, attention span, concentration as well as physical weaknesses such as wood-cutting, farming, domestic chores, etc. However, on health issues, most participants that elderly had complaints of high blood pressure, sugar and joint pain but ancient traditional methods for the treatment of their medical illnesses. Elderly male were reported to have a significant role in the family, and community regarding major decisions on property matters, community conflicts, marriage and domestic issues, educational or career guidance while female elderly usually spent most of the time in religious practices, rituals, household chores and farm duties with contribution of resolving the conflicts at household level with limited decision making powers.

The commonality of their work was in agricultural activities but the men do heavy load work like leveling the land, preparing the land for sowing seeds, watering the land and women sow seeds and spread fertilizers in it. Elder man keeps themselves busy and participates in community matters (dealing with issues as water shortage) and domestic services (preparing wood for kitchen uses).

Elder women contributed in household activities and practice their religious obligations as well. They helped in domestic chores, worked in fields, facilitated in drying fruits such as apricots, apples, etc. and cultivated vegetables, milk and assisted in feeding/caring of domestic animals and so on. In winters, there is no social and outdoors activities due to extreme cold weather in Gilgit so majority people especially elderly women spent their time in handicraft-making during winters. Elderly reported that they are living a comfortable life at home. They enjoyed respect given by their children and being surrounded by grandchildren. They shared their daily activities with them.

Contrary, the routine of both male and female respondents were different due to cultural and social roles. The male respondents shared their routine schedule as they take nap after offering prayers in the morning, and were not engaged usually in any specific activity in morning. After offering prayers and reciting tasbeeh, female elderly started working with domestic animals and in fields after 3:00 am daily. Few women respondents from Ismaili community reported that they regularly visit their Jammat-Khana after sunset for offering their prayers. When they return, they watch television or in the case of shortage of electricity, they listen to the radio programs in regional languages. The average day of both female and


328

male respondents end at 8:00 to 9:00 pm due to early dark in the Gilgit city as it is surrounding by heightened mountains. Subtheme: Social support

Not even a single respondent complaint about their family life. Each participant was satisfied by social support they are receiving from the family members as well as the attitude and behavior they observe in their surroundings. A respondent stated that “when I get ill people come to ask about my health. When I work in field they come to help me, sometimes they give me fruits and dry fruits”. The respondets reported that they are happy with the support and attitude of their family members and siblings. A respondent said that “my family has good attitude towards me and they support me in every matter. We invite each other on different occasions which please us”.

Some elderly male disagreed by stating that sometimes nobody is usually there to support them and nor get any social support from our community and society.

Elderly participants were physically active and usually finished their task easily without any assistance. Majority elderly have good health and do not seek any help and actively participated in daily activities. Few elderly had joint pain and heart problems and they can not perform any task independently. One respondent of 75 years old shared that when he could not able to do field work due to joint pain, his son and grandson assisted him.

Some participants of focus group conducted in Lahore city indicated low social support. They felt alone due to lack of friendship and interaction during this age. A participant reported that “In the past I have many friends but now I have no friend and I need friend to whom I talk and interact to. . .”. One of the women participant during indepth interview mentioned that she have much interaction with other and she like to communicate with others. As she said “I have many friends but three are closed to me . . . I talked and meet them often, many people visit my home during weekend”. Subtheme: Family time with elders

All of the respondents mentioned that the family members are mostly busy on weekdays. They try to spend time with elderly as much as they can. As compared to weekdays the elders reported that youngsters spend more time with them on weekends. The respondents were happy for the care and time given by their young members of family. A male respondent of age 60 said that “. . . my family members spare special time for me”. Some respondents reported that their family members ask them frequently about their health which makes them happy . . . “Family members give me dine, when my son come back from work they ask about my health . ..” said by a respondent.

There were different responses regarding the time given by the family members. The respondents living with son’s family reported that they spent more time with them specially the grand children while the daughter’s family visits them on weekends or on other festivals.

The elder men who are still having some income generating activity said that they themselves do not find time to sit with their family members. A male respondent of 70 years reported that “daytime I always busy with my work at night I meet all my family members”. Few respondents said that their family members accompany them when they get some spare time. One responded that “when family members are free from domestic activities we sit together.” Respondent also highlighted that their young family members are obliged to give them time as they are living together. A respondent said “Living under the same roof is the adavntage of their time that they give to us.”

A widow respondent said that “I cannot live and stay alone because I feel anxiety. I accompanyed my daughter in law everywhere she moves.”

Some respondents of Lahore mentioned that their children are mostly busy and spent less time with them even on weekends. Two participants reported that they children hardly


329

talk to them and sit with them. One women participant mentioned that her children sit with her and daily spent one hour in chit chat. She reported that “My children used to sit with us, we always do dinner together and after having dinner they spent alteast one hour with me and this make me happy”. Subtheme: Youth consultation with Elders

As far as the decision-making or piece of advice is concerned, family consult their elders when they face any obstacles related to property conflicts, marriage issues, educational or career guidance, home/job/or sheds construction or renovations, participation in any marriage/funeral ceremony, or any communal activities and problems etc. The respondents were satisfied that youth take their advice and decisions respectfully and act accordingly. Some respondents were pleased to share that they mutually discuss any issue and take the decision on mutual consensus. As a respondent said “Children always consult them and respect their opinions. But usually we discuss issues together and come to understanding jointly”.

There were some respondents who do not oblige their children to ask them about their decisions. One elderly female responded that “ . . . we just need clothing and food which is our necessity. The current circumstances suits that our children should take their own decision. . . .We must not interfere and give them decision power. . . ”. Some reported that the consultation of their young family members for petty things make them happy and accounted. It makes them glad and they all appreciate such kind of behavior. A respondent said that such events make their presence more comfortable at home. One elderly male dynamically contributing in domestic affairs, agricultural and community activities said that he is always consulted by his children. He said “I take all important decisions in family if anyone disagree I use punishment strategies, although my wife tries to do her own”.

Few participants showed their anticipation of their role playing in decisions-making of the family issues. It made them angry if their family members do not seek their piece of advice regarding any decision. Few male participants reported that children do not consult them regarding commercial investment or choice of academic institution of their children. However, the families respect the decisions of elderly people for sowing seeds of their choice of crops. Subtheme: Emotional Support

Participants who lived in old age home of Lahore reported that they were deprived of love, care and emotional support from their families. Participants mentioned that they were quite disappointed from their children who left them and forgot them. A participant reported that “I am very sad that at this stage of my life I am not getting love and care from my children”. Whereas participants who lived in their own home reported that they are getting emotional support from their family. Theme B: Medical needs

All of the participants reported that in case of health problem they found every member of the house hold helping them. They also mentioned that whoever presents around them helps them during the emergency, including the neighbors or any other relative. The most common response was that their sons are most helping person in any emergency who takes them to doctor etc. A respondent said that “I have asthma; my children help me in case of emergency.” Subtheme: Helping hand in an emergency

All participants responded that in case of any emergency, their spouses and/or children helps them financially and socially. Both female and male elderly participants pointed out that


330

their male children help them in case of any emergency. The female respondents who have their life partners responded that their husband play important role when there is any emergency and children also assist him. The widows reported that their sons and grandchildren help them in any emergency. A respondent who is patient of joints pain said that he feels pain now he cannot move too far and feels difficulty while changing positions like sitting, standing and at that time he calls his son or any other family member in case of emergency.

Participants of focus group conducted in old age home of Lahore mentioned that they were not having appropriate medical facilities i.e., they didn’t have medicines, conveyance, no facilities in medical emergency situations. Participant said that “we help ourselves and try to help each other in hour of emergency”. Women of indepth interview reported that her younger daughter helped her during emergency. Subtheme: Health care decisions

Few respondents said that their spouse and children help them financially and socially whether it could be health care decision or any other decision. Almost all of the respondents reported that doctors help them in case of any health issues.

Some of the participants appreciated the services of institutions that are rendering their services for health awareness sessions. They reported that the lectures conducted by Aga Khan Health Service (AKHS) makes them aware of the health issues. They also assisted them to take decisions regarding health issues and to communicate their symptoms to their families or doctor. Subtheme: Any illness

The most common illness among the respondents was high blood pressure, diabetes and joint pain. Some participants usually use traditional method for the treatment of their illnesses. Some of the respondent faced any illness and were on continuous medication. They take the prescribed medicines other keep general pain killers at home and take it when they have pain without prescription.

Some respondents were healthy enough and they do not take any kind of medicines while some take medicines in case of fever or any other diseases. One of the participants reported that he do not have any illness and claimed to be very healthy at age of 71 years. A widow of above100 years said that “I take medicines for only eyes infection”. Some of the participants use traditional medicines such as salajeet, etc. for illness, allergies, and infections.

Elderly men reported that the female members of their family (i.e. wives, daughters, daughter-in-laws, niece, nephews, etc) assist them in taking medicine timely. Male respondents living with wife said that usually their wife take cares of his medication and widower said that their daughter in law and daughters take care of them. While the female respondents said that any of their children help them to take the prescribed medicine on time. Some female shared different disease then the above mentioned diseases. An elderly female mentioned that she has gap in the upper side of vertebrate column near neck that’s why she has unbearable pain.

Almost all elder participants of focus group conducted in Lahore were suffered from different physical problems i.e., diabetes, arthritis, weak eye side, hearing impairment, slurred speech, body aches, and pain in gums and teeth. Three elder participants reported that “I am just like an old car in which every part is defective but still it is moving slowly”. The women of age 62 during indepth interview reported that “I only take medicine for blood pressure and leading a healthy life”.


331

Subtheme: Physical Needs Some of the participants of focus group conducted in Lahore mentioned that they are

above of 60 years of age and couldn’t able to do their all tasks by themselves so they need support of youngsters. But simultaneously some of the participants also mentioned that they didn’t need any physical support and help. They felt themselves as self sufficient persons and can do anything they want to do. A participant reported that “I fell that I have energy and I can do everything, I do not want to depend on others for my needs”. Subtheme: Controlling bowls or bladder

Very few participants have trouble in controlling their bowels or bladders. A widower of 100 years said that sometimes he cannot control his bladder. Two elderly female, diabetic, having difficulty in controlling their urinary bladders. Some respondents did not report the problems in controlling the bowls or bladders but they discussed some other problems like having constipation, frequent urination, etc. Theme C: Economical needs for daily living

All respondents are satisfied with their current financial status. The two main sources of income of the respondents were government jobs/pensions and other is side business. Most of the male members were financially independent and having pensions. They claimed that they do not depend on anyone for their financial assistance. Few of the respondents said that they fulfill their own as well as assist their family members financially specially their children. The elderly whow are earners are also main decision makers of their family. They spend money to fulfill the necessities of whole family. However women reported that they rely usually on their son’s or grandson’s income or their husbands penions. They reported that their husband get pensions after retirement which is enough to meet their economic needs. The women respondents who have enough land for cultivation rely on the income from livestock and agriculture. They reported to be self-sufficient. Besides these, if they need more money they just simply ask them to send more. Subtheme: Financially dependency

Most of the elderly participants prefer to keep themselves involve in some income generating activities so that they could not depend on their children’s income. It could be some kind of business, animal husbandry or cultivation on some piece of land so that they could use it in case of emergencies. The respondents shared a customary practice of property distribution. This practice offers the elders “komoro” which is fathers share in property which he keeps to fulfill his own necessities. This practice is considered as good source of being independent financially. The participants who are having some income generating activities responded that they rely on their son’s income. A respondent said “my son fulfill my economic needs”. Subtheme: Satisfaction with current financial status

All of the respondents were satisfied with their current financial status. One of the respondents stated that “Thanks to Allah Almighty, we don’t have any worry regarding it”. The respondents who were relying on their children said that they don’t panic about things. Although they cannot fulfill their necessities but their children are stable enough to feed them and look after their needs. A participant said that “I am satisfied because I am not dependent else than my son”. Only elderly female responded his son sold three pieces of land due to financial problems and she is worried enough.


332

Subtheme: Health Status The participants who are financially sound and independent are satisfied with their

current situation. Some of the respondents said that they are surviving a healthy life and do not have any complain regarding health. The respondents who have health issues agreed that being independent has a good impact on their health because they can fulfill their small kind of necessities including health problem timely. They don’t have to wait for others to come and help them for petty issues. The participants reported that their financial status affects their health in a positive way. Due to their financial status their nutrition’s and health care needs are fulfilled which positively affects their health. A widow whose son was indebted has sold the land complained that finical problems have affected her health. She said that her children are not able to provide her proper diet and medicine which is affecting her health badly. Some respondents stated that they usually use traditional foods in order to maintain their physical health such as home made butter, lasi (from milk), sharbat (dush of wheat, meat, & butter), kista (bread), fiti (cake like bread), dodo (soup of dry meat and home made noodles), etc. Theme D: Elderly Satisfaction with Life

All participants responded that they all are living happily with their children and grandchildren, and satisfied with their life by all means. Participants shared their views that their life is worth living and their family members respect their presence and fulfill their necessities.

All reported they are happy regardless of what’s going around. The participants who had very tough time at their past are very much happy and delightful with their current situation as their children are settle down in their life now. Some responded that they are happy with what they had in their past and what they have now.

Only elderly widow responded that she become annoyed when her children do not fulfill her demands while one of the respondents stated that “I am happy only when I help others especially in my community”. Subtheme: Expectations from family

The elder people expect love, care, respect and support from their family. Few said that youngsters should accept their life time devotion. The participants added that they have devoted their whole life and continue it till the end of their life to meet their demands and expectations. They also expect that their young family members realize their contribution regarding property, building home, educating their children and providing them with the opportunities to develop the sense of responsibility for their home, community, region and country. However, the elders expects from their family to live unitely instead of disputes or in units.

The female participants added that they must be given money so that they could spend it on construction of mosques. They also expect from the family to take them for Hajj and ziarat, they want to visit all holy places before death.

Few respondents said that they do not expect anything from their family but are worried for their paralyzed or special persons in the family. Participant said that they get so panic sometimes when they think about their children, like what would happen to them in their absence, as one female participant showed her concerns about the future of her daughter who is mentally ill. She said that “what would happen to her and how could she spend her life if I die?” while other respondent was worried about her mentally upset husband.

However, there were different opinions regarding the expectations of the family. Some respondents said that their family do not have any expectation from them; few have little expectations, while few said that family expects a lot from them. Few elderly thinks that their family members still expects physical, emotional and socio-economic assistance from them. Elderly female respondent said that “. . . what else would they expect from me except prayers .


333

. . ”. A respondent of 70 years reported that “ . . . right now they don’t expects from me as I am old now . . .”

Few respondents reported that their family members want them to take rest as they are aged now. Elder female want to contribute in homes‘ economy so she does not like to sit spare and prefer work all time. A male respondent of above 100 years said that his families does not want him to work but he wants to keep himself busy. One of the respondent stated that their “my family expects me that I should always live with them and share my life experience with my grandsons.” Subtheme: Self-efficacy Skill

Participants reported that level of their self-efficacy of skill is decreasing with the passage of time. Their growing age has negatively impacted their efficacy level for various skills. The male respondents reported that they cannot do heavy load work like construction of stone-wall while few elderly women reported that they are facing difficulty in performing household chores and domestic work and even embroidery and handcraft making. Subtheme: Dealing with family conflicts

All participants reported that conflicts are the part of life and they deal with it contextually. Majority of the respondents replied that father or head of family is responsible to deal with domestic problems. The respondents highlighted that all major decisions like domestic as well as the societal conflicts are resolved by the male members of the family while female members typically contribute to resolve the conflicts at household level but they have very rare decision making power. The decisions taken by the male members are taken for granted.

Elderly male reported that they intervene in any matter only if conflict become rigorous either at home or in community. They try to figure out the root causes of the dispute, solve the matter, and sometimes suggest punishments to the one who is on wrong side. A male respondent said that “If someone resists I deal with justice and don’t hesitate to punish them ”.

A respondent shared that they had a conflict among the family members during the distribution of the property but they solved it mutually by discussions.

One elderly woman who takes part in solving disputes at family, neighborhood or even in community reported that she uses diverse coping strategies while dealing with conflicts; she becomes very polite to avoid further conflicts and deals the case attentively. Moreover, few women said that they are very anxious and worried by apprehending the bad consequences in future. They reported that they usually show patience over any conflict, isolate themselves (sometimes cry), and ask help and guidance from Allah Almighty. However, all respondents said that they give responsibilities to their youngers in order to avoid disputes at home as well as at work place. A respondent said that “I usually divide the work among co-workers to deal conflicts at work”. Subtheme: Spirituality

All participants spend most of their time in religious practices and rituals regularly. Elderly female members of Ismaili community habitually offer their evening prayers in Jamatkhana. All In addition, they also engaged in raising different funds for mosques as well as involved in community welfare programmes. Elderly male of above 100 years responded that “I am very spiritual and my ultimate desire is to die while practicing religious rituals”. Subtheme: Suicidal attempts

No suicidal tendencies or suicide attempts were reported by any participant. Respondents coded that their religion Islam do not allow them to attempt/commit this


334

prohibited (haram) act. They added that their life is gift from God and will take it whenever He wants. They added that difficulties are the part of life and they have to face them courageously. Theme E: Sensorimotor skills

All sensorimotor skills were intact among elderly participants; few participants faced difficulty in hearing and sighting due to their age. Subtheme: Auditory ability

Only four participants reported that they have auditory impairements. They are facing difficulty in communication with their family members and friends. A person has to repeat words or sentences sometimes to make them understand the conversation. None of the participants used any assisting devices. Subtheme: Speech ability

All of the respondents rated their speaking ability good enough except one. One female responded that she has shaking voice and she cannot communicate anything properly; facing difficulty in finding appropriate words to speak out occasionally. Rest of the participants did not have any trouble with the content, rate and quality of speech. Subtheme: Eye-hand coordination

Most of the respondents have adequate eye-hand coordination. Few respondents pointed that they feel little shivering in their hands, but the coordination between eye and hand is intact. Sometimes they face difficulty in doing few tasks such as needle work, wood-work, etc. A widow respondent has problem of trembling hands with nearsightedness which troublesome her eye hand coordination while performing tasks. Few of the respondents who actively participate in every domestic task claimed that they can do it better than the youngsters. Subtheme: Difficulty while describing the position and moment of limbs

Few respondents reported that due to age fatcor, they had trouble in walking such as tremors & shaking in hands and legs, etc. Two female respondents reported that they were unable to describe their positions and movements properly. A respondent said that she is relying on her daughter-in-law for every personal care.

Few respondents of Lahore also mentioned that due to their age factor they had difficult in walking and handling. One of the participant reported that “I have difficulty in holding thing due to my shaky hand movements so I tried hard and handle with both hands”. Subtheme: Difficulty with the movements

Few respondents had difficulty in bodily movements. Due to age factor and joint pain, unable to do field work and could not offer prayers as reported by few respondents. Few elderly female mostly rely on their daughters-in-law for bathing and changing clothes. Subtheme: Falls in the past

The notable falling experiences were reported by few of the participants but in youth and adulthood. A respondent reported that he fell down from tree and got crack in thigh bone; now he can walk but unable to run. While four of the eldelrly female reported that they fell down from tree in their youth and injured in their arms and legs.


335

Theme F: Cognitive Skills All of the participants reported intact orientation of time, place and person alongwith

partial impairement in cognitive skills. Some subthemes of these cognitive skills were also discussed as follows: Subtheme: Ability of Intelligence

The participants were awared that the intelligence level depends on age and it is getting worsen with the passage of time. Some painful incidents of life were one of the contributing factors in deteriorating intelligence as reported by few participants. Furthermore, elderly female inidcated that her intelligence level had been decreased in recent years later, after the death of her husband. Subtheme: Attention-span & Concentration

Elderly participants have adequate attention-span while preforming daily tasks; few respondents reported short attention-span. They are unable to focus on some specific matters and forgot to recall any delicate details about the matter. All respondent reported that their age has negatively impacted their ability to concentrate and their concentration ability is not much stronger as it was before. Subtheme: Language Comprehension and Communication

All of the respondents reported that they don’t feel any trouble with communication and comprehension of local languages but they can’t comprehend the conversation with their grandchildren because they use English and Urdu words in their dialogues. Respondents added that they cannot communicate their problems to doctors or such individuals if they do not speak the respondent’s local language. A male respondent of 65 years shared that he is not such aged to make effort in communication. Subtheme: Short-term and Long-term Working Memory

In order to assess short-term and long-term memory in participants, small task of 3-words had given to all participants by the researchers, half of the participants were unable to recall these words after three minutes but some of them recalled these words after average twenty minutes. It is reported that sometimes it is hard for them to recall past events. A respondent of 60 years old declared that he sometimes forget things to do and face difficulties in remembering and recalling due to age factor.

Narratives of Lahore participants indicated that most of them experienced memory loss. A participant mentioned that “I forget my daily routine tasks and difficult to recall them. I know this due to my age factor”. Subtheme: Content of Thoughts

The content of thoughts of all of the participants was integral, as most of them were keeping themselves busy to avoid negative thoughts. Some respondents said that they keep themselves busy in prayers and thanks to Almighty Allah for His blessings. A participant reported in a very satisfying manner that “I have everything I want, what I should think about“. Two elderly widows reported of having anxiety and irrational beliefs. Sometimes few participants have uncertain death anxiety after hearing news of death in family or in their community. Theme G: Elderly’s Feeling of Sadness, Loneliness or Depression

All elderly participants reported that they are optimistic and always thinks positive that’s why they never feel sad, lonely or depressed. Few elderly reported that they sometimes feel down due to different reasons but they never feel hopelessness because they trust Allah


336

Almighty. An elderly male of 60 years said “why should we get depress if God is giving bread to us.”

Participants, who were active in their youth and adulthood, were feeling belittle and depressed by considering themselves useless and worthless when they do not find any task to do. Elder man of 100 year indicated that he become depressed and bothered when he has nothing to do. Some respondents were feeling downed for not being active to practice pleasurable tasks.

Few participants reported that they feel upset when there is any upheaval in the family. A respondent said that “when my children fight with each other I get very upset”. Some reported that they get bore when they confine themselves to routine work for long. By spending too much time in a shop make one of the elders male distressed.

Few respondents become hopeless and distress when family members do not accept or give importance to their point of view or decisions. Some have lack of pleasureable, recreational and social activities which also make them depressed and worthless.

Similarly the participants of Lahore also mentioned several psychological problems. Most of the participants reported that they experienced anger. They mentioned the reasons behind their anger “Became angry due to children misbehaviors, bitter behaviors of people and dependency on others”.

Few participants reported that they became upset and feel loneliness. A participant said that “I became upset due to my children’s behavior and feel loneliness due to lack of social support and get more upset on recalling past sad memories of their life . . .”. Another participant mentioned that “I became sad when he thought that his children throw out of their home and their children don’t have time, care, and love for his father”.

Some participants also mentioned the feelings of frustration due to their physical problems. A participant said that “I became frustrated due to my physical problems. . . I have to face dependency on others . . .”.

Few participants of elderly group lived in old age home so they felt isolation. A participant mentioned that “I am living in old age home and spend time with other members who lived there. I missed my family and children . . . I have the feelings of isolation most of the time”.

One women mentioned that she is leading a healthy and satisfactory life and reported as “Allah blessed me with everything so why I should get depress. . . I am always thankful to Allah” Subtheme: Sleep habits

A quality of sleep is deteriorating with growing age among elderly. Some respondents depicted that if they sleep for an hour at day time then they could not able to sleep whole night. Few female respondents mentioned that as they work whole day so they have good sleep at night, but sometimes faced difficulty in falling sleep when they get sick or have any bodily pain. One male respondent indicated that due to bedwetting he is unable to sleep well. Another respondent reported that he could not sleep properly from last few months attibuted by unknown anxiety.

Most of the participants of Lahore reported sleep problems. A participant mentioned that “I have no proper sleep because I have urination problem due to which I have to go the washroom multiple times during night”. Another participant reported that “I do not have a proper sleep at night because I take several small naps in day time”. Subtheme: Changing in Appetite and Weight

Elderly participants reported that they have healthy diet such as meat, vegetables, dairy products, but some of them reduced intake of salt according to doctors’ advice for treating high blood pressure. Due to high mountainous region, the intake of salt is very common in


337

foods and drinks among inhabitants of Gilgit-Baltistan, which resulted in high blood pressure and other diseases. Elderly male stated that “The food which I eat is very tasteless without salt . . . sometimes I want to eat the things which doctor did not allow me to eat . . . it makes me depressed”.

Apetitte is decreased in some of the participants which resulted in weight loss. A respondent stated that “I eat less now and don’t want much food because of age by which I loosed my weight”. Many of the participants were unsured and unconscious about their weight (either losing or gaining).

The themes and the analysis for younger group have been discussed on the basis of narratives and dialogue of youngers Theme A: Importance of elders in the society

Young participants expressed their thought about elders that they are influential and decision makers of the society but now their role has been confined to household level activities. A respect and dignity must be given to them for their contribution in building generations as well as for their rich and diverse knowledge and experiences.

A female respondent said that “elders are very important in society because the transfer of knowledge especially the cultural and traditions are kept by them”. The respondents said that elders are the source of learning for them. Their presence is not only beneficial for whole society, but also a source of blessing for individual lives. A respondent highlighted their importance as, “Their advice is source of progress and development for us. . . their opinions for social problems are easily accepted for societal growth”. Young female mentioned that “. . . elders are like nervous system, without them society cannot precede growth . . .”.

They are honored as backbone of the society for transmission of culture and traditions. One young participants stated that “ . . . they are the icons of culture and tradition . . . ”. As they are the ones who regularly celebrate all local occasions and festivals like ginani, nasalo, thumushahling, etc.

They also mentioned that the formal education of elderly is also a controbuting factor of generation gap and the sense of understanding. One of the young responded has given the example of land utilization in the Gilgit that earlier the land was used just to fulfill household requirements but now young generation is utilizing the land for different purposes like commercial agriculture and construction of commercial areas. Theme B: Elders living with youth and their significance

In Gilgit, traditional joint family system is common, majority of young respondents live in joint families along with at least parents, parents-in-law, grandparents, uncles (taya, chacha) or aunts. Very few respondents are living in nuclear family system. Some reported that they have experience of living with elders that is their parents, in-laws or grandparents. Youngers admitted that elders assist them in different chores and are source of learning as they possess experience of so many years. They acknowledged that their piece of advices on different occasions of life proved to be very helpful and beneficial for them.

There were different opinions regarding elder’s role at house hold level. The participants portrayed the role of father as more authoritative, responsible and care taker than that of mother. A respondent said that “I am living with my elderly parents . . . my father is the manager of my home and I follow what he says . . .”. A respondent living with her mother stated that “my father passed away few months back. When he was alive I was a free person though I am married with four children . . . After his death I feel myself helpless . . . Elders take care of everything . . . and their guidance and experience helps us a lot in handling for the ups and downs of life.”


338

The young respondents who do not reside with their elderly parents presently due to their studies in urban cities stated that “parents are most respectful for us. . . they have seen the world around more than us. . . I am not living with them presently but I terribly feel their absence in my life. . . Though I am satisfied with daily affairs but on intricated occasions, the first person comes in mind is my father . . . ”.

One of the youngers stated that “my grandmother is living with me. I think she is pillar of our home. . . respecting her is our social and religious responsibility”. One of the respondents shared his thoughts about his grandfather “. . . My grandfather is living with me . . . he is highly experienced person and has a lot of knowledge. . . I am learning the traditional skills and survival tecnhiques from him with great interest”.

Some respondents identified the efforts of grandparents and their struggle in life. A respondent stated that “ . . . my grandmother is in 80s' and she still participates in domestic activities, she likes to work actually . . . she’s strong enough! . . . She works in fields, looks after cattle. . . This is the source of engagement for her . . .”. Another younger respondent appreciated his grandmother efforts in these words “ . . . my grandmother starts her day with field work, . . . she never seems happy and contended with the quality of work as we do! . . .so, she likes to do all domestic chores herself especially of fields and cattle”. Few youngers responded that as elders spent their life full of hardships and struggle, they do not appreciate younger’s work positively and blame latest technologies. However, elders believed that youngers are not such hard workers as they were during their youth. Theme C: Dealing with elders

Collectively all of the youngers reported that they face difficulties while dealing with elders. Some respondents said that their elders are much authoritative and they have to follow what they say or decide. It becomes very difficult to make them understand about certain things. A respondent stated that, “elders are given respect and if they take any decision, the family members are obliged to follow it as an order. Anyone who disagrees on any issue is tagged as nafarman (one who disobeys)”.

Some respondents reported that due to the sensitive nature of elders; they treat them like bids as they became sensitive on some trivial issues. They said that they have to be very careful while dealing with their elders. A respondent living with father said “I feel difficulty to deal with him because he gets angry very soon even on petty mistakes. I have to be very careful while talking to him”.

Very few respondents stated that they do not feel any kind of difficulty while dealing with their elders. They said that they are source of happiness for them. A respondent replied “Not much . . . I am more attached . . . their stories are interesting”. Another respondent stated that “my grandfather is quite frank with me so I don’t have any issues on making him understand about anything or share my thoughts and wishes with him”.

A participant justified the reason for respecting elder’s presence via Islamic preachings by stating that “. . . our religion do not allow us to even climb the roof if elders are sitting inside the home . . .”. Theme D: Time spent with Elders

Almost all respondents agreed that they spend very short time with their elders. They justified it into two reasons, one is the busy schedule and the other is elder’s attitude. Working men responded that they spend average two to three hours in a day with their elders while working women reported as three to five hours with their elders in a day. Each respondent claimed that they sit with their elders for breakfast and on dine. Almost all of the respondents reported that they spend more time with them on weekends and special occasions like marriages, eid days etc. Housewives spend more time with them; a house wife said “. . . we live together and accompany them 14 hours a day because I spend most of the time at home .”


339

Some responded that due to elders rigid attitude they avoid spending time with them. A respondent living with her grandmother said; “I don’t sit with her more. She asks a lot of questions repeatedly and I haven’t time to answer her questions again and again, which resulted in her anger . . .”

While few youngers shared their activities of routine life and discussed problems with their elders. Youngrs get opinions and suggestions for their issues while elders get happy and accounted them. A respondent said “I discuss my routine life with them. It becomes the source of satisfaction for me and pleasure for them”. Another younger observed her grandmother that “. . . she shares her memories with me .. . we have fun together via conversations . . .”.

Most of the participants of Lahore mentioned in their interviews and focus group discussion that they didn’t get too much time to spend with their grandparents because they were quite busy in their studies. Moreover they also mentioned that they wanted to give time to them but due to busy routine they face difficulty in giving them appropriate time. A participant reported that “I hardly give an hour to my grandmother; this is just due to academics”. Theme E: Dependency of elders on youth

Most of the respondents replied that the elders are not depending on them much. Very few respondents showed their dependency on elders for their help when they feel any trouble in life. The group of female members said that elders do not depend on them. A respondent said that, “They are much active and do all their chores themselves. We just cook for them as we don’t want them to cook; rather we are dependent on them to take care of our children when we are busy in other chores.”

The young respondents highlighted the income level of their elders to figure their dependency level. Respondents said that most of the elders were government servants and now getting pension which is enough to fulfill their necessities. Youngers reported that “No . . . we never thought or have the feelings that they are dependent on us for their daily life activities . . . ”.

While some said that elders depend in one or another way. Some participants justified that age factor is responsible for elder’s dependency on them. A respondent with her grandmother said that “I think that she is dependent on us because of her age”. The level of dependency differs for different things.

Lack of formal education is also pointed out as a reason of dependency of Gilgiti elders. One of the female younger responded that her grandparents never take medicine without asking her. She said that “I always help my grandparents to give them the prescribed medicine on time”.

Data gathered from Lahore indicated that participants viewed as their grandparents are not much dependent on them. Most of them reported that their elders are physically fit and they try to do their chores by themselves. Two participants mentioned that their grandparents are more active than them.

Few participants mentioned that their grandparents are dependent on them due tro their physical complaints. One participant said that “my grandmother has a leg problem due to which she cannot walk by herself so most of the time I took her outside the home” Theme F: Recreational Activities

Diverse responses were reported on the modes of recreational activities and their role in performing these activities. Mostly said that they haven’t planned any activity till now, some reported it very often and some relied on the community recreational centers for it. A respondent depicted that “I usually plan for such kind of activities with my senior members of the family”. The youth group justified this negligence by their busy schedule. Some preferred


340

to do such activities with their age group. Few respondents stated their community centers plan recreational activities for senior citizens in their community.

Some youngers entertaind their elders by their skills, fun or pleasurable activities such as regional dance, sing a song, read a newspaper/magazine/book, share jokes and humorous events. One of the youngers sung song on guitar and flute with her grandfather. A respondent mentioned that he dances on local music to make his grandmother happy. A respondent said that “I am joyous person. . . I entertain them with humorous activities and hanging them out frequently”. Theme G: Elders as a source of learning

Almost all of the respondents agreed to the point that elders are good source of learning as they have valuable lifetime experience. Youth acknowledged their contribution for guiding them in different fields of life. A respondent indicated that her grandmother told them her stories, shared her experiences, made comparisons between their and current time. Another respondent shared that his grandfather used to tell stories about history and rituals of our region, his life experiences of traveling, professions as an electrician as well as shared some extract scenes from movies in which he played a side role in his young age. He added that his stories are remarkable and taught us different spectrums of life.

Furthermore, few respondents shared that they find the examples of pure love and sincerity from their elders as their grandfather and granny have immense love for each other. The selflessness, sincerity, care and respect for each other in tough and unfavorable circumstances inspire us.

Young participants of Lahore mentioned that elderly are the integral part of society and are the source of learning. Most of the youngsters also mentioned that their grandparents guide them and tell them that how to pass our life in a better way. A participant mentioned that “My grandparent guide me through examples that I can understand reality of life easily”. Another participant mentioned that “. . . our grandparents life was full of all types of experiences so they are source of learning . . .”. Theme H: Importance of Youth’s Opinion among Elders

Varied responses were reported regarding the importance of youth’s opinion in different circumstances. Some responses were positive and stated that their elders always accept and respect their decisions because of their educational background and as a critical thinker. One of the respondent stated that “. . . my mother value my ideas as she believes I am educated and I can make my decisions well . . .”. while some reported negative remarks by stating that their elders always shelve their ideas against of their experiences, “ . . . whenever I tried to discuss anything with my elders I get a single reply that you are young son I know better than you . . .”. Another younger mentioned that “our views are taken as childish”. Some respondents said that they take the opinion from their elders but do not follow it if their given suggestion is inappropriate for them.

A respondent mentioned that the age factor is also responsible for their expression in the family. He said “. . . being elder son they always take my opinion and follow it unless it’s ineffective. . .”. Very few respondents expressed that the presence of elderly gives satisfaction and soothes us but sometimes it is often difficult to make them understand even for the understood things. Subtheme: Physical, Neurological And Psychological Problems

Most of the young respondents of Lahore mentioned that their elders suffer different physical, neurological and psychological problems due to the aging.


341

Most of the youngers mentioned that their grandparents mostly have headache, arthritis, diabetes and hypertension. A participant mentioned that “My grandmother is physically weak and she has pain in her joints”.

Participants also mentioned that their grandparents also have some neurological problems i.e., memory problem and trembling. Most of the participants mentioned during the focus group and in depth interviews that their grandparents have trembling in body and they helped them in their daily life tasks.

Participants mentioned that their grandparents also had tension and stress. Due to the age their level of tolerance became lowered due to which they easily became angry and frustrated at minor issues. One participant reported that “my grandmother became angry when someone never consults with her for any matter of home”. Conclusion

The findings of the present research would facilitate in developing a comprehensive geriatric instrument which would assess psychological needs among elders in Gilgit. It would also be very effective in assessing psychological, emotional, and neurological functioning of elderly not only in aging population in Gilgit-Baltistan but also for aging population in across the country.

Findings from this preliminary study will have very important implications for improving quality of life of the elderly, designing interventions, support system and rehabilitation services to help them preserve and maximize their existing functions.

This project was funded by the Research Grant from Higher Education Commission to the first author, acknowledgement of all those involved in the data collection. References: Alexopoulos, G. S. Geriatric depression in primary care. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 11:397-400, 1996. Alexopoulos, G.S., Vrontou, C., & Kakuma, T. Disability in geriatric depression. American Journal of Psychiatry, 153:877-885, 1996. Arean, P.A., & Miranda, J. Do primary care patients accept psychological treatments? General Hospital Psychiatry, 18:22-27, 1996. Baig, L., Hasan, Z., & Iliyas, M. Are the elderly in Pakistan getting their due share in health services? Results from a survey done in the peri-urban communities of Karachi. Journal of Pakistan Medical Association, 50(6), 192–196, 2000. Bruce, M. L., Seeman, T. E., Merrill, S. S. The impact of depressive symptomatology on physical disability: MacArthur studies of successful aging. American Journal of Public Health, 84:1796-1799, 1994. Cooper, P.L., Crum, R.M., Ford, D.E. Characteristics of patients with major depression who received care in general medical and specialty mental health settings. Medical Care, 32: 15-24, 1994. Crawford, J. R., Venneri, A., & O’Corroll, R. E. Neuropsychological assessment of the elderly. Elsevier Service Ltd, 133-169, 1998. Daigneault, S., & Braun, C. M. J. Working memory and the self-ordered pointing task: Further evidence of early prefrontal decline in normal aging. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 15, 881-895, 1993. Daigneault, S., Braun, C. M. J., & Whitaker, H. A. Early effects of normal aging on perserverative and non-perseverative prefrontal measures. Developmental Neuropsychology, 8, 99-114, 1992. Dempster, F. N. The rise and fall of the inhibitory mechanism: Toward a unified theory of cognitive development and aging. Development Review, 12, 45-75, 1992. Fuster, J. M. The prefrontal cortex (2nd ed.). New York: Raven Press, 1989.


342

Huppert, F. A., & Kopelman, M. D. Rates of forgetting in normal ageing: A comparison with dementia. Neuropsychologia, 27, 849-860, 1989. Jalal, S. & Younis, M. Z. Aging and Elderly in Pakistan. Springer Science & Business Media, DOI 10.1007/s12126-012-9153-4, 2012 Klausner, E. J., & Alexopoulos, G. S. The Future of Psychosocial Treatments for Elderly Patients. Psychiatric Services, 50:1198-1204, 1999. Luber, M. P., Alexopoulos, G. S., Hollenberg, J. Identification, treatment, comorbidity, and resource utilization of depressed patients in primary care. Psychosomatics, 38:188-189, 1997. Sabzwari, S. R., & Azhar, G. Aging in Pakistan- A New Challenge. Aging International Springer, 1-5, 2010 Shimamura, A. P. Neuropsychological perspectives on memory and cognitive decline in normal human aging. The Neurosciences, 6, 387-394, 1994. Simon, G. E., Von Korff, M., & Barlow, W. Health care costs of primary care patients with recognized depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 52:850-856, 1995. Appendix-A Focus Group Discussion (FGD) Checklist for Elderly Group Najam & Kausar, 2013 Gender: Male/ Female Age: __________ Marital Status: single, married, widowed, divorced Place: ___________ Current Working or NOT: If Yes, 1. Agriculture 2. Domestic activity 3. Running small business 4. Community activities 5. Other ______________________ Living with Living alone - Living with spouse - Living with children-nuclear Living with children-joint - Living with relative General Health: In general would you say your health is: Excellent 2. Very Good 3. Good 4. Fair 5. Poor Assistive Devices (if any) Hearing aids 2. Eyeglasses 3. Canes/walkers 4. Other __________ Q.1 What sort of social support do you have? How would you describe your life at home?" Can you tell me what your typical day at home is like? What are your activities of daily living? Do you need help or can you do it yourself? How much your family/families spend time with you? Daily basis/ weekends? How much your family members consult you? Do they give respect to your decisions or follow your piece of advice? Q. 2 What could be your medical needs? Who usually help you in an emergency? Who would help you with health care decisions if you were not able to communicate your decisions? Any Illness? What is your system for taking your medications? Do you have trouble with control of your bowels or bladder? Q.3 How do you fulfill your economy needs for your daily living? Is the activity a source of income? Financial dependency /needs dependent on self, family (children/grand children, or others? Are you satisfied with your current financial status? How does it affect your health? Q. 4 Are you satisfied with your life? What do you expect from your family? What does your family expect from you? Do you feel life isn’t worth living?


343

How do you give details of your self-efficacy skills? Which skills do you prefer to be enlisted in priority basis? What sort of coping strategy do you use while dealing with any conflict at home? What sort of coping strategy do you use while dealing with any conflict at work? Some people are generally very happy. They enjoy life regardless of what is going on, getting the most out of everything. To what extent does this characterization describe you? How much spiritual you are? Have there been suicidal tendencies or actual suicide attempts? Q. 5 How do you give details of your sensorimotor skills? Have you or your family member any trouble with your auditory ability such as hearing lately? How do you rate your speech abilities (such as speech content, speech rate, & speech quality)? Have you have any difficulty with your eye-hand coordination? Do you have any difficulty while describing the position and movement of your limbs and body to others? Do you have any difficulty in assembling sequences of movements (eating, walking, running, dressing, etc.) or any other difficulty in movements? What type of falls have you had in the past year? Q.6 How do you illustrate your cognitive skills? Do you have orientation of time, place and person? How do you rate your ability of intelligence (vocabulary, fund of knowledge, perception motor skills)? Do you have problem with your attention span? Do you have problem with language communication or comprehension? Do you have problems with short-term working memory, short-term recent memory, and long term memory Does your age affect your ability of concentration? How do you rate your thinking patterns or content of thoughts? Q.7 Do you often feel sad, lonely or depressed? Have you often been bothered by feeling down, depressed, or hopeless?" Have you often been bothered by little interest or pleasure in doing things? How do you rate your quality of sleep? Any sleep disturbances? How do you rate your eating habits? Are you either losing or gaining weight? Appendix - B FGD Checklist for Younger Group Najam & Kausar, 2013 Name: ______________________ Gender: Male/ Female Age: ______________________ Marital Status: single, married, widowed, divorced Grade: ______________________ Source of income: ________________________ Do you live with 1. Parents 2. Parents & grandparents 3. Joint family system Q1. How do you perceive the importance of elder people in society? Q2. How many elders are living with you and do you identify the significance of elder in your life? Q3. Have you ever feel difficulty while dealing with elders? Q4. How much time you spend with elders? Q5. Do you feel that they are dependent on you for their daily life activities? Q6. How often you do recreational or pleasurable things with elders? Q7. Do you think that elders are source of learning? Do you acknowledge their sharing of experiences? Q8. How much elderly give importance to you and your opinions?


344

AWARENESS AND ADOPTION OF MAINTAINING QUALITY STANDARDS: A CONFECTIONERIES PRODUCERS’

PROSPECTIVE

AL Sandika, B.Sc, M.Sc Department of Agric. Economic

SP Seethagama, B.Sc VS Jayamanne, B.Sc, M.Sc, PhD

Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka

Abstract Confectionary sector is one of major sub sector of Sri Lankan food marketing. But,

many occasions, consumers ignore the food quality information due to lack of awareness. Quality is becoming increasingly important to all entrepreneurs. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify the producers’ awareness and adoption towards maintaining of food quality standards. Beliatta DS division was selected purposively as study area of this investigation. Randomly selected 40 producers were used in order to find out the relevant information such as awareness and adoption towards maintaining of food quality standards. Primary data was collected through pre tested interview schedules with the systematic observation. Significant numbers of producers’ were not aware about quality standards viz, SLS, ISO or HACCP. Fateful condition was that they did not know even the name of the quality standards. However, 68% of producers were aware about GMP because they had participated to training programme which were organized by Vidatha centers and Industrial Development Board. They were further encouraged to fulfill the GMP practices in their production line. Further, producers’ attempts to maintain the GMP was observed as very low due to producers’ negative attitudes and negligence, lack of skill and low investment ability etc. Therefore, relevant private and public institutes have to pay grate attention on this matter, and also they should give their service to improve the quality standards of the confectionary food sector.

Keywords: Quality standards, Awareness and adoption Introduction

With the growing global competition, quality is becoming increasingly important to all entrepreneurs as well as cooperate sector as rapid evolution in markets is fueled by changing customer needs (Senaweera, 2013). Good quality products has been man's main endeavor from the earliest days of human existence products ‘quality can be considered as a complex characteristic of food which determines the value or acceptability by consumers (Singh and Sharma, 2013). Quality movement’s origins can be traced back to W. Edward Deming, Joseph M Juran and Philip B Crosby and even further back, to Frederick Taylor in the 1920 (Senaweera, 2013). In Sri Lanka, not only confectionaries marketing systems but also whole food marketing systems are not well organized and developed based upon the quality maintaining as compared to other developed nations. Therefore, Sri Lanka Standards Institute (SLSI) introduced ‘national quality week’ during 14-20 October 2013 throughout the country in order to raise the awareness of the importance of ‘Quality towards nation’s and an organization’s growth and prosperity. Kupiec and Revel (2001) stated that a “quality


345

attributes” can be defined as tangible or intangible product features which influence quality perception directly upon consumption. Dimara and Skuras (2003) stated that the importance of certification as extrinsic quality cues varies among consumers and thus the use of such quality cues targets specific segments of the market.

On many occasions, consumers ignore the food quality information due to lack of awareness. Grunert (2002) pointed out that quality logos can give consumers another means of inferring experience and credence characteristics of food products. Sanchez et al., (2001) has been reported a positive relationship between presence of quality standards and aspects related to food safety.

Confectionary sector is one of major sub sector of Sri Lankan food marketing. Confectionary is the set of food items that are rich in sugar. Confectioneries are somewhat low in nutritional value but rich in calories. Specially, formulated chocolate has been manufactured in the past for military use as a high density food energy source. Traditionally confectionary is one of the key sectors of the snack foods market. With the increment of demand for “food on the go” that can be consumed at any time of day, new alternative snacks are emerging on the market such as cereal snacks, meat snacks, and dairy snacks and fruit snacks. (Senevirathna, 2010).

Regarding the confectionary industry in Sri Lanka, it shows satisfactory growth and it will be the sector that has least affected from the global financial recession. The growth of the confectionaries in the Sri Lankan market can be shown as; 10% growth in biscuit, 10% growth in chocolate and 20% growth in cake (Liyanage, 2010). There are few large scale confectionary industries available in Sri Lanka. Their market share is around 50% for the local market. Around 20% of total market supply comes from micro, small and medium scale producers and rest of the 30% are imported (Jayantha, 2009).

Since there are many producers in the country, there is a big competition among them too. Therefore, consumers would be able to purchase the quality confectionaries from the market. However Jayantha, 2009 pointed out that when purchasing the confectionaries, consumer consider about price, appearance, packaging material, taste, quality. Therefore, producers should attempt to produce good quality confectionaries for the market. Therefore, producers have to follow the introduced certain quality standards for producing confectionaries

Sri Lankan quality standard authority call SLSI has introduced “Sri Lankan Standards” (SLS) and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) quality certifications to maintain good quality standards in food production industries including confectionary. This certification is for all small, medium, large scale food manufacturing industries including confectionary. Before obtaining SLS certification, GMP certification should be obtained. GMP certifies that the manufacturing process is conducted by following suitable and proper hygienic methods. Most of small, medium scale confectionary industry owners attempt to obtain GMP quality certification and by that they expect to explain their market space by providing high quality fine confectionary products to consumers (Liyanagama, 2008).

GMP refers to the Good Manufacturing Practice Regulations promulgated by the US Food and Drug Administration under the authority of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. These regulations, which have the force of law, require that manufacturers, processors, and packagers of drugs, medical devices, some food, and blood take proactive steps to ensure that their products are safe, pure, and effective. GMP regulations require a quality approach to manufacturing, enabling companies to minimize or eliminate instances of contamination, mix-ups, and errors. This in turn, protects the consumer from purchasing a product which is not effective or even dangerous. Failure of firms to comply with GMP regulations can result in very serious consequences including recall, seizure, fines, and jail time (Potter et al., 1995).

GMP regulations address issues including record-keeping, personnel qualifications, sanitation, cleanliness, equipment verification, process validation, and complaint handling.


346

Most GMP requirements are very general and open-ended, allowing each manufacturer to decide individually how to best implement the necessary controls. This provides much flexibility, but also requires that the manufacturer interpret the requirements in a manner which makes sense for each individual business (Potter et al., 1995). GMP regulations are as follows. Building and Facilities

Floors, walls and ceilings are constructed of smoothly. Placement of equipment, orderly storage of materials, sanitary operation, and proper cleaning and maintenance are ensured. Lighting and ventilation are sufficient for the intended operation. Water supply, floor drainage and sewage system are adequate for sanitary operation and cleaning of facilities, equipment and utensils. Equipment

Equipment and utensils are of appropriate design. Utensils, transfer piping and cosmetic contact surfaces of equipment are well-maintained and clean. Cleaned and sanitized portable equipment and utensils are stored and located, and contact surfaces of equipment are covered, in a manner. Raw Materials

Raw materials and primary packaging materials are stored and handled in a manner which prevents their mix-up, contamination with microorganisms or other chemicals. Containers of materials are closed, and bagged or boxed materials are stored off the floor. Containers of materials are labeled with respect to identity. Lot identification and control status should be labeled. Personnel hygiene

Persons coming into direct contact with cosmetic materials, finished products in bulk or cosmetic contact surfaces, to the extent necessary to prevent adulteration of cosmetic products, wear appropriate outer garments, gloves, hair restraints. Production process

Only approved materials are used. Weighing and measuring of raw materials is checked by a second person. Labels are examined for identity before labeling operations to avoid mix-up. Packages of finished products bear permanent code marks. Returned cosmetics are examined for deterioration or contamination. Laboratory Controls

Raw materials, in-process samples and finished products are tested or examined to verify their identity.

Determine their compliance with specifications for physical and chemical properties, microbial contamination, and hazardous or other unwanted chemical contaminants. Reserve samples of approved lots or batches of raw materials and finished products are retained for the specified time period.

They stored under conditions that protect them from contamination or deterioration, and are re-tested for continued compliance with established acceptance specifications. The water supply, particularly the water used as a cosmetic ingredient, is tested regularly for conformance with chemical-analytical and microbiological specifications.


347

Labeling In addition to the name of the product, the statements of identity and net contents. The name and address of the product manufacturing firm is compulsory.

The list of ingredients (only on outer container) if intended for sale or customarily sold to consumers for consumption at home (Potter et al., 1995).

At least GMP other than Food quality standards (SLS) and food safety systems (ISO, HACCP) and Halaal certification must be managed throughout the food chain from farm to fork to achieve food safety phenomenon. However, large scale firm have already adopted to maintain advance quality standers. On many occasions small and medium scale producers ignore the maintaining of quality standard of confectionary food items due to a lack of awareness and many other briars. Further, less number of investigations has been done to identify the producers’ awareness and adoption of maintaining quality standards on confectioneries. Therefore, it is a necessary to conduct a systematic study to fill this gap. So, this study was conducted to identify the producers’ awareness and adoption towards maintaining of food quality standards. Methodology

There are large numbers of small and medium scale confectionary food producers in Beliatta divisional secretariat (DS) area of Hambantota district southern Sri Lanka. Therefore, Beliatta DS division was selected purposively as study area of this investigation. There are various confectionary product were reported in selected area. Sesame roll, Milk toffee, Jujubs, Boondi, Dodol, Marshmellow, Asmee, Sugar coated bite, Kokis and Oil cake are the major products of selected area. Randomly selected 40 producers were used in order to find out the relevant information such as awareness and adoption towards maintaining of food quality standards. Primary data was collected through pre tested interview schedules with the systematic observation. To measure the response on producers’ awareness and adoption towards maintaining of food quality standards, Likert scale was used in subjective form based upon the important dimension of GMP viz., building and facilities, equipment, raw materials, personnel hygiene, production process, laboratory controls and labeling. A scale with five levels (5 = very high, 4 = high, 3 = neutral, 2 =weak, 1 = very weak) for awareness on different GMP practices and 3 levels scale (2 = always 1 = sometime 0 = never) was used for determine the adoption level. In addition important factors such as gender, age, religion, occupation, income, education, family background, (age, education and income of the family members) information sources (interpersonal and mass media) business registration, nature of business, place of business, and mode of production were also collected. The Pearson product movement correlation test was performed to ascertain the relationship between the different variables. Result and discussion

With regard to the age distribution of the producers’, it was varied from thirty five to seventy seven with the mean of 32. Majority (70%) of producers have registered their business while majority (70%) is doing this business as their major livelihood. There were several common confectionary products in Beliatta Divisional Secretariat. However, the most popular confectionary product was sesame roll. The highest proportion of producers (38%) in the sample were producing sesame roll because higher profits readily available of row materials such as sesame and juggery. In addition to sesame rolls, there were other popular confectionary products as well. They were asmee, boondi, coconut toffee, marshmellow, jujubs, sugar coated bite (batto), kokis, oil cake.

Important point was that small scale producers have not achieved even minimum requirement for register their business. Other pathetic situation was that they were not monitored by the relevant authority for maintaining even minimum requirement of quality


348

standards. It was observed that quality consciences by small scale producers on their production line were very low. However, most of the producers who have registered their business have attempted to maintain quality of their products.

Further, 80% of producers were rural producers while 45% of producers are manufacturing confectionaries using human labour and others use machines. Out of the many common confectionary products, the most popular confectionary product was sesame roll. The highest proportion of producers (60%) in the study area produced sesame roll because profit margin form sesame roll was very higher as compared to other confectionaries. Addition to sesame rolls, asmee, boondi, coconut toffee, marshmallows, jujubs, sugar coated bite (batto), kokis, oil cake were reported as popular confectionaries among the respondents.

With regard to the producers’ awareness on quality standards viz, SLS, ISO or HACCP, 85% of producers were not aware about those quality standards. Fateful condition was that they did not know even the name of the quality standards. However, 68% of producers were aware about GMP because they had participated to training programme which were organized by Vidatha centers and Industrial Development Board (Fig 1). They were further encouraged to fulfill the GMP practices in their production line.

Figure 1: Awareness on each quality standards

However, producers’ adoption level to GMP was observed as very low due to many

reasons. Foremost reason was producers’ negative attitudes and negligence to maintain the quality standards while others were lack of skill, low investment ability etc. Attempt was made to observe the producers’ adoption to each important points of the GMP such as building and facility conditions, production condition, labeling condition, and personal hygiene conditions. Situation illustrated that practicing individual points were also very poor. Similar result was found by the Jevšnik at el, (2009). They found that sauerkraut growers possess a rather good level of knowledge concerning food safety, although some gaps were discovered (e.g., record keeping and the feeling that recording data was an unnecessary burden, inadequate acquaintance with health status requirements, insufficient knowledge of the cabbage production process of food safety professionals, etc.). Some differences were found when comparing the results of the qualitative and quantitative studies. The qualitative analysis highlighted some contradictions (e.g., an attitude toward the production process: “We do not need the HACCP system”; a feeling concerning product safety: “Why the need for data recording?”) and differences between the sauerkraut growers and a professional understanding of good practice guidelines for sauerkraut production. All other determinations concerning food safety knowledge and practices are presented and discussed. The findings can be used as a guide for reorganizing current education programs aimed to improve safe and hygiene practices at the farm level.

Most of the producers were unable to increase investment for improving building, used machineries or new technology because of their poor knowledge and lack of capital.


349

Therefore, majority of producers engage on with available space of their own houses or built small tents behind the houses. Conditions of the production unit and equipment were therefore not satisfactory. In the concern of mode of production, only 40% of producers used simple machinery. All of them were sesame roll producers and they used only sesame grinding machine and sesame cleaning machine. Fifteen percent use several equipments such as beaters for marshmellows and homemade equipments for boondi production.

With regard to the production condition, raw materials and production process were observed as satisfactory. However, all of the respondents have still not reached to GMP level. Medium scale producers have fulfilled however basic requirements of the GMP because it is compulsory for the registration of the business. Main issue was majority of confectionary producers have not adopted to GMP requirements.

All producers have their own labeling because it is illegal to sell food item without proper label in Sri Lanka. Therefore, all have their own brand name. Label contain generic name of the product, brand name, manufacture date, expiry date, ingredients, weight, price, producer’s name and address. Therefore, labeling of the confectionary product was observed as satisfactory level.

Maintaining personal hygiene and labour sanitation was very important factor to be considered to achieve high level of quality of any kind of food products. Most of the producers have used family labour to reduce cost of production. Pathetic situation was, maintained of personal hygiene and sanitation was observed as very unsatisfactory level.

On this background, this pathetic situation should be taken in to consideration by the relevant authorities to upgrade them to reach minimum requirement. Wilcock at el., (2004) have pointed out based upon their study that there exists the need for professional assistance for consumers regarding food safety issues.

According to Wilcock at el., (2011) the main motivating factors were the likelihood of future regulation, the value of HACCP for marketing, and avoiding food safety problems. Further they pointed out that management commitment was the most commonly cited element of successful implementation. Wilcock at el., (2011) further pointed out that food safety managers or coordinators faced the greatest variety of challenges during implementation.

Empirical evidence of the study clearly illustrates that there was a positive relationship between quality standards and personal factors of the producers. Males had high knowledge about HACCP and GMP (p = 0.04) than females because, males search more relevant information than females. Other important point was there was a positive correlation between income and awareness of the SLS (p = 0.00). It can be further simplified as producers’ awareness of SLS increases with income. It means that producers attempted to acquire more information about SLS from mass media and various sources when increasing the income. Moreover, producers’ awareness on SLS has increased with the experience of the producers (p= 0.03). However, there was no any significant relationship between producers, personal factors with the GMP. Conclusion

Significant numbers of producers’ were not awareness on quality standards viz, SLS, ISO or HACCP. Fateful condition was that they did not know even the name of the quality standards. However, considerable number of producers was aware about GMP because they had participated to training programme which were organized by Vidatha centers and Industrial Development Board. Further, producers’ attempts to maintain the GMP was observed as very low due to producers’ negative attitudes and negligence, lack of skill and low investment ability etc. Therefore, relevant private and public institutes have to pay grate attention on this regard, and also they should give their helping hand to improve the quality standards of the confectionary food sector.


350

Scope for future research Future research can be done by collecting data from other areas of Sri Lanka with

larger samples in order to have more comprehensive study related to confectionary food producers. At same time, similar research can be done for other types food products too. References: Dimara, E, and Skuras, D.. Consumer evaluations of product certification, geographic association and traceability in Greece, European Journal of Marketing, 37, 5 Pp. 690-705, 2003. Grunert, K.G.. Current issues in the understanding of consumer food choice. Trends in Food Science and Technology, 13, 8, Pp 275-285, 2002. Jayantha, I. M., The role of industries in the development rural sector. 2009 [Online] available at : http://www.wikipiedia.com [Accessed: June 13, 2013]. Kupiec, B., and Revell, B.. Measuring consumer quality judgments, British food urnal, journal ,103, 1, Pp 7-22, 2001. Liyanagama, P. U.. International confectionary association, 2008. [Online] available at :<http;//www.dailynews.lk> [Accessed: June 13, 2013]. Liyanage , N., Analyze of problem and prospects of micro, small and medium scale confectionary sector. Pp. 47-55, 2010. Potter, Norman N. Joseph H. and Hotchkiss, Food Science. 5th Edition. New York: Chapman & Hall. pp. 90-112, 1995. Sanchez, M., Sanjuan, A. and Akl, G., The influence of experience in consumption and personal attitude on the purchase of lamb and beef, 71st Seminar of European Association of Agricultural Economics, The food consumer in the early 21st century, Zaragaza Spain, 2001. Senaweera, L.N., Quality Improvement through Standardization. A Necessity for economic development. Daily News, Lakehouse Publication, Sri Lanka, 2013. Senevirathna, H., Current trend in confectionary, 2010. [Online] available at :<www.dailynews.lk> [Accessed: May 8, 2013]. Singh, H. and Sharma, H., Consumer Perception towards the Quality Marks of Products, International Journal of Management and Social Sciences Research (IJMSSR) Volume 2, No. 9, September 2013 pp 50 – 53, 2013. Wilcock, A., Ball, B., and Fajumo, A., Effective implementation of food safety initiatives: managers’, food safety coordinators’ and production workers’ perspectives. Food Control, 22(1), pp27-33, 2011. Wilcock A., Maria P, Khanona J., and Aung M., Consumer attitudes, knowledge and behaviour: a review of food safety issues, Trends in Food Science & Technology, Volume 15, Issue 2, pp 56-66, 2004 Jevšnik, M., Hlebec, V., & Raspor, P., Survey of safe and hygienic practices among Slovenian sauerkraut growers. Food Control, 20(7), pp 677-685, 2009.


351

WINE INDUSTRY IN THE BEKAA VALLEY, LEBANON FOOD-PROCESSING INDUSTRY AS A BASIS FOR

COMMUNITY DYNAMICS AND LOCAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Layal Bou Antoun Doctorante en sciences économiques, Université Pierre Mendès, France

Abstract The idea behind this paper is to counter traditional thinking on economic and social

development that considers development as dependent byproduct of macroeconomic policies led by governments, or as a sole byproduct of entrepreneurial dynamics on the micro level. The idea we are defending here is that the ”Community”34 as defined by German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies, (a tighter and more cohesive social entity) is a context where the "social" and "economic” are less separated and where the spatial dimension becomes more significant. This context could be an adequate analytical framework and a tool for regional development in the context of a developing country like Lebanon. In this context several questions arise: Could the concept of “community” be considered as an appropriate analytical framework of socioeconomic dynamics in the context of developing countries and how? What tools, does a community approach provide for regional development in Lebanon? What role do the existing tangible and intangible resources in the community play in the development process? In order to find answers to these questions, we shall employ the wine industry in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon as a case study. After a brief background, we shall attempt, in the first section of this paper to present the socio-economic developmental situation in the Bekaa Valley. In particular, we shall focus on the agricultural sector, and examine the failure of both private and public sectors in developing this sector, and analyze the repercussions thereof. In the second section, we shall demonstrate how the wine industry not only grew, in spite of this failure, but in fact outpaced most other local agricultural activities and industries as well. Section three will examine the "community organization" surrounding the vine tree and the wine industry in the Bekaa Valley. This aspect goes beyond the economic factor, as important as this factor is in organizing the sector's activities, to touch upon social, geographical, cultural and historical aspects too.

Keyowrds: Wine industry, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon Background: The Lebanese Economy in a nut shell

At the end of its civil war (1975-1990), Lebanon was left facing three major conflicting challenges: a massive and costly reconstruction program, economic recovery and macroeconomic balance. To achieve this, the government embarked on an ambitious policy of economic reform including industrial and agricultural modernization, improving the investment climate and opening internal markets and integrating into the world economy. The

34 Gemeinschaft — often translated as “community” (or left untranslated) — refers to groupings based on feelings of togetherness and on mutual bonds. Note here that some theorists may use the term “territory” in translation of the French concept “territoire”.


352

overall objective was to regain Lebanon’s position as a strong economic engine in the Levant and reclaim its title as "Switzerland of the Middle East.”

Twenty four years later, the country is still facing several problems that hinder its development. The following statistical information provides a glimpse of the enormity of those problems.

In 2012, trade deficit stood at $16.3 billion and payments’ deficit at $6.7 billion. Between 2011 and 2012, budget deficit to GDP ratio climbed from 6.1% to 9%. In 2013, debt-to-GDP ratio reached 143%. The production of goods is chronically and persistently weak. In The GDP share of agriculture in 2012 was 6.1%, industry was 20.5%, while the service sector (tourism, banking & finance, administration, trade) accounted for 73.4%, (Figure 1).

Lebanon’s geopolitical position at the center of one of the world’s bloodiest conflict zones does not help its economic outlook. There are enormous political and security challenges that threaten its stability and that of it productive sectors. As an example, and due to the Syrian conflict, the number of tourists visiting Lebanon declined by 40% in 2013 compared to 2010. Our case study, the wine industry in the Bekaa Valley is part of the agricultural sector in Lebanon. This sector employs about 8% of the workforce in the country but it faces many difficulties. First of all, only 55% of Usable Agricultural Area (UAA) is used, and often ineffectively. This, among other reasons, causes Lebanon to import about 82% of its food needs. The diversity of imported food is quite remarkable and places the Lebanese agricultural products at a competitive disadvantage. In 2013, total food imports were valued at $ 3.4 billion while export did not exceed 757.291 million. (Figure 2)

Agriculture receives only 1 % of the national budget; at the same time the private sector financing and bank loans to the agricultural sector are quite insignificant (0.9% of total loans granted in 2010 according to the Central Bank of Lebanon).

Figure 1:

Source: economic accounts of Lebanon (2002-2010)

-20

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Administration

trade

Transport et communications

Construction

energy & water

Services

Industry

Agriculture & breeding


353

Figure 2:

Source: Lebanese customs (2014).

Regarding industry, it operates under very adverse conditions: lack of electricity and

other energy sources; insufficient raw materials and almost entirely imported and paid in foreign currencies; difficulty finding skilled labor; old and obsolete equipment. These circumstances increase production costs, making Lebanese products less competitive on regional and international markets. In addition Lebanese industry suffers from lack of institutional financing (bank loans) and investments.

Nearly 8 % of the Lebanese population lives in extreme poverty. About 300.000 individuals are unable to have access to basic nutrition, earning a salary of $ 2.4 per day. The UNDP estimates that nearly one million Lebanese (28.5% of the total population) live in conditions of normal poverty earning $ 4 per day. This poverty is selective; the absolute poverty line ($ 2.4 per day) is less common in Beirut (less than 2% of the population). It is also rare in the region of Mount Lebanon (between 2% and 5% of the population). The phenomenon is accentuated in the Bekaa and the South, where poverty is estimated at between 10% and 12% of the population, and in the North where it reaches 17%. This focuses on severe regional disparities making of the South, North and Bekaa zones of poverty, a problem exacerbated by the negligence of public authorities, (lack of basic infrastructure in these areas : road networks , electricity, water, hospitals , public schools ... ). As a result of this gap between regions and the geographical distribution of productive activities on the Lebanese territory, the country is divided between center and periphery, in terms of development. The Bekaa on the margin of socio-economic development

Located near the Syrian border, the Bekaa is considered a peripheral region of Lebanon. In 1920 the French government attached the Bekaa, the South, the North and Beirut proper to the political entity of Mount Lebanon (established in 1861) to form the present-day Lebanon. Before the creation of the State of Greater Lebanon in 1920, parts of the Bekaa were administered by Syrian cities.

The Bekaa occupies an area of 4000 km2, covering 38% of the Lebanese territory. Lying on a plain between two mountain ranges, Mount Lebanon to the west and the Anti-Lebanon to the east, the Bekaa has an overall Mediterranean climate with a more arid tendency in the north. It is crossed by two rivers journeying in the opposite direction, the Litani to the south and the Orontes (Al Asi) to the north. These two rivers create a fertile area quite suitable for agriculture. In a country with 80% urbanization level, and an economy centered on the service sector (tourism, finance, trade), the Bekaa - a region marked by poverty and the preponderance of rural activities - seems to be at the margins of economic activity and development.

0

1.000.000

2.000.000

3.000.000

4.000.000

2010 2011 2012 2013

valu

e in

thou

sand

S U

SD

year

agricultural import

agricultural export


354

Considered as part of the breadbasket of the Roman Empire, the Bekaa is an area of agricultural specialization producing cereals, tobacco, potato, beet, cotton, hemp, fruits and grapes. The UAA in Lebanon amounted to 231.000 ha in 2010, down about 6% compared to 1998. The distribution of UAA per Governorate shows the predominance of the Bekaa (43%). Therefore the economic policies regarding agriculture concern this “community” in the first place. The French mandate

Since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the structure of the Lebanese economy didn’t change much. It has been always focused on services sector at the expense of industry and agriculture. During French mandate (1918-1946) Lebanese economy was based on ports-related activities such as trade and transit of imported goods (Edmond Chidiac, 2002). The most remarkable issue during this period was the Syrian-Lebanese negotiations regarding the separation of the “Common Interests”35. These negotiations were very important since they called into question the already divergent economic orientation of the two new countries. While Syria privileged primary and secondary sectors through protectionist economic policies, Lebanon chose to center its economy on services sector through outward oriented policies. The definite break between Lebanese and Syrian economies took place on the 15th of March 1950. Ever since, the Lebanese economic policies became even more services oriented.

Between independence and civil war

Between 1950 and early 1970s, and in spite of the urgent needs of this sector, funding of the Lebanese agriculture was characterized by its inadequate growth, as well as arbitrary and unorganized agricultural credit distribution. “La Banque de Crédit agricole, industriel et foncier (B.C.A.I.F.)” founded in 1954, is the primary agricultural credit institution in Lebanon. Its action is characterized by inadequate resources, lack of dynamism and a chronic lack of plans, studies and research in the agricultural section (Riad F. Saade, 1973). “Throughout the 1950s and all through the early 1970s, the Lebanese economy grew rapidly and cumulatively. This high growth was characterised, however, by severe imbalances between sectors, regions, classes and sects. Agriculture in Lebanon did not grow to its full potential and was constrained by insufficient government attention and encouragement and by an adverse macroeconomic regime that promoted services and trade at the expense of productive activities.”36 In 1974, on the eve of the civil war, agriculture contributed 9% to GDP, employed 20% of the labour force and sustained a rural population that stood at 14% of the total population. The civil war

The civil war (1975-1990) witnessed the expansion of cannabis plantations in the Bekaa. This activity had started way before that due to the concentration of economic activities in the capital and major cities and the negligence of public authorities of this part of the country. The area devoted to cannabis in the Bekaa in 1929, amounted to 200 ha, in the late 1940s, it reached 2.000 ha and 6.000 ha in 1965 (Darwich S., 2004). This fast expansion led the public authorities to implement in 1966 a project that aimed to substitute cannabis with sunflower. This decision led to a remarkable decrease of cannabis plantations (500 ha in 1971). But the positive impact of this policy didn’t last for long. First the complex bureaucratic procedures and the incapacity of the government to deliver sunflower plants and pesticides contributed to the failure of the project between 1971 and 1975. With the beginning

35 Since both current states of Syria and Lebanon were under the French Mandate as one entity, many public service institutions were unified such as the Customs, Gendarme, Ecole Militaire and the currency. 36 Atif Abdallah Kubursi: “Lebanon’s Agricultural Potential: A Policy Analysis Matrix Approach”, McMaster University and Econometric Research limited, p. 1.


355

of the war in 1975, and the spreading of anarchy, the cannabis plantations covered 15 to 20% of cropland in the Bekaa. By the end of the war, Lebanon was the third largest producer of cannabis according to the 35th session of the Committee on Narcotic Drugs, held in Vienna from 6 to 15 April 1992 (Darwich S., 2004). After the War

After the war the public authorities implemented another project to limit cannabis expansion but this time the substitute was sugarcane. This project was also condemned to failure. The former cannabis farmers had no choice but to practice an illegal activity or to leave their hometowns. The Bekaa witnessed several episodes of armed confrontations between cannabis growers and Lebanese armed forces.

Nowadays farmers cultivate several other products such as fruits, vegetables, olive trees, grapevines and others. The local production is threatened by the competition of agricultural products mainly coming from the neighboring countries (Syria, Jordan, Egypt ...). Similarly, government trend towards even greater openness to regional and international markets without any serious policy to protect local production harms agriculture and encourages farmers to leave or sell their land and move to the outskirts of cities, especially Beirut, where they live in precarious social conditions. The lack of attention of the government and private investors towards the agricultural cluster of the Bekaa reduces job opportunities especially for young graduates who find no interest of staying in their hometowns. This raises the problem of the rural exodus, the Bekaa -an area exceeding one third of the total surface of Lebanon- is now gathering only 13 % of the Lebanese population.

The Bekaa Valley has a very large agricultural potential, which is only partially exploited (50%) and in a primitive way. The years after the Civil War were marked by a sort of revival of economic activity. On the one hand, we noticed an improvement in the real estate sector, which is a double-edged sword. The construction stimulates the development of the region but at the same time the lack of control and planning from public authorities (central and local), leads to random construction in the plain at the expanse of Usable Agricultural Area (UAA). On the other hand, the recovery is manifested by an increase in investment in the food-processing industry, including wine which is the subject of this paper. Wine industry: a spectacular renaissance

Grapevines are not a new phenomenon in Lebanon. Vines and wine industry first developed in the east Mediterranean countries six thousand years ago. The Phoenicians transported wine through the Mediterranean to Europe. The Bacchus Temple in Baalbek stands in testimony to the history of wine in the Bekaa valley.

Under the Ottoman Empire wine production and trade were banned for four hundred years except for religious purposes. This fact allowed the Jesuits to keep the industry alive. In 1857 they founded “la maison Ksara” in the town of Ksara near Zahle, Bekaa. In the same period Francois-Eugene Brun, a Frenchman who was hired by an Ottoman company to build Beirut-Damascus road, founded the winery Domaine des Tourelles in 1868 in Chtaura (Bekaa). Then Domaine Wardy was founded in 1893 in Zahle (Bekaa). After the WWI, and with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire which was followed by the French mandate, wine industry was revived.

The presence of French soldiers and diplomatic delegations developed a significant local market. In addition the French brought a diversity of French grape varieties to Lebanon. Between 1920 and 1940, the existing wineries knew a spectacular growth and three new wineries were founded; Domaine Nakad (1923), Château Musar (1930) and Clos Saint Thomas (1937). After the independence in 1943 and before the beginning of the civil war in 1975, service sector was more attractive for investments than agriculture and industry. During the civil war only one courageous project saw the light, Château Kefraya (1979). The real


356

renaissance of wine industry began in 1997. Today the number of wineries in Lebanon exceeds 43; almost 50% of them are located in the Bekaa valley. Wine Industry in the Bekaa: a local activity

“The pure theory of location, according to Engländer, is the general theory of “local conditionality” within an economy. Any given entrepreneur, in choosing the site at which to produce or render services, considers the various supply prices existing in the various localities for the inputs that he might possibly employ.”37

Geographic, climatic, demographic and economic characteristics of the Bekaa play a key role in the development of wine production in this region. A mixed soil of limestone and clay, a gap of 15oC between day and night the Bekaa ensure good climate conditions to the development of vines. On the other hand the two rivers of Litani and Orontes make the Bekaa an agricultural cluster which attracts investors through low supply prices of agricultural products, proximity that reduces transactions costs, the existing agricultural atmosphere which makes possible fast and free exchange of know-how and professional information and the fact that the Bekaa is a basin for agricultural manpower. Wineries

The Bekaa valley encompasses 50% of Lebanese wineries which produce 7.700.000 bottles (75cl) per year equivalent to 74% of the global Lebanese production of 10.500.000 bottles per year (2013). Wineries are for the most located in Zahle. Some wineries are also present in Baalbek and West Bekaa (Table 1, Figure 3). 67% of the owners are from the Bekaa and in 74% of cases they have family relations. 75% of owners somehow chose the wine industry to take over a family business. In some cases the original family business would be vineyards cultivation or arak production or even trading grapes going back through two or three generations.

Table1: Winery Location Casa 1 Château Barka Barka Baalbek 2 Coteaux d’Heliopolis Deir El-Ahmar Baalbek 3 Cave Kouroum Kefraya Bekaa Ouest 4 Château Kefraya Kefraya Bekaa Ouest 5 Château Qanafar Kherbet Qanafar Bekaa Ouest 6 Château Marsyas Kefraya Bekaa Ouest 7 Reserve Ammiq Ammiq Bekaa Ouest 8 Domaine Cortbawi38 Jdita Zahlé 9 Domaine de Baal Hazerta Zahlé 10 Domaine de Mas Hélios Jdita Zahlé 11 Domaine des Tourelles Chtaura Zahlé 12 Domaine Wardy Zahlé Zahlé 13 Château Ka Chtaura Zahlé 14 Château Khoury Hazerta Zahlé 15 Château Ksara Ksara Zahlé 16 Château Nakad Jdita Zahlé 17 Château St Thomas Kab Elias Zahlé 18 Coteaux du Liban Hawch El Oumara Zahlé 19 Héritage Kab Elias Zahlé 20 Massaya Taanayel Zahlé

37 ISARD Walter, “Location and Space-Economy: A General Theory Relating to Industrial Location, Market Areas, Land Use, Trade and Urban Structure”, Chapter 2, p.31. PUBLISHED JOINTLY BY The Technology Press of Massachusetts Institute of Technology AND John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, Chapman & Hall, Ltd., London, 1956, Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation . 38 Domaine Cortbawi was founded before 1990 but in the time it was only producing arak.


357

Figure 3:

Vineyards

The total vineyard area in Lebanon is 10.609 ha with 70% devoted to “table grapes” with grapes destined for wine production stand at the equivalent of 3.183 ha. Bekaa comprises 69% of the total vineyard area (2196 ha). Graph 4 shows the distribution of vineyards in the different governorates (mohafazas) of Lebanon.

Figure 4:

The area of 72% of the plots is less than 1 hectare. Table 2 shows the distribution of

vineyards in percentage according to their sizes. Table 2:

Vineyards area % of total area Vineyards ≤ 1 ha 72.38806 Vineyards between 1 & 10 ha 19.40299 Vineyards between 10 & 20 ha 0.746269 Vineyards between 20 & 100 ha 6.716418 Vineyards > 100 0.746269 total 100

25%

10% 65%

Wineries distribution by casa

Bekaa Ouest

Baalbek

Zahle

7%

69%

8%

2% 13%

1%

% of vineyards by governorates (mohafazas)

Aakar

Bekaa

North-Lebanon

South-Lebanon

Mount-Liban

Nabatiyeh


358

The vineyards are managed by four types of managers: Independent winegrowers39. (mostly located in West Bekaa and Zahle) Independent winegrowers, members of a cooperative (Coteaux d’Heliopolis) that provides them with technical support, marketing assistance and training to ensure good vineyards management. (100% located in Baalbek) Wine producers40. NGO

Wine of the Bekaa is 100% made of Bekaa grapes. Fifteen years ago the majority of the workforce of the West Bekaa engaged in raising livestock. Lack of water and irrigated terrain didn’t help residents of the West Bekaa to cultivate their lands. With the establishment of Château Kefraya in 1979 the owner of the winery Mr. Michel de Bustros brought vines from France and distributed them to locals. At the time, the company bought all the production of the village of Kefraya and provided the know-how, agricultural products and machinery to winegrowers. Lack of water is not an obstacle for growing vines; the sloped shape of the land combined with a soil rich in limestone and clay in addition to convenient climate helps the development of vineyards in this region. Today the village of Kefraya provides grapes to many other wine producers not only in the Bekaa but in the whole of the country. After the Kefraya village vineyards were spread in the whole West Bekaa (Ammiq, Jeb jinnin, Kherbet Qanafar, Mansoura &Tal Dnoub), the area of vineyards in the West Bekaa exceeds 500 ha today.

In Baalbek it was almost the same weather and soil conditions. During the war and even before it was the region that developed the most cannabis plantation as we mentioned earlier. The first vineyards was planted in 2000 by Dr. Sami Rahmeh who founded the cooperative Coteaux d’Heliopolis that counts today around 200 winegrowers from different villages in Baalbek (Aynata, Bechwat, Btedde, Chnifa, Deir el Ahmar, Mcheirfeh, Yammouneh & Zrazir). Many of these winegrowers were in prison for growing cannabis. We shall note here that what the government failed to do in order to substitute cannabis, the “community” somehow succeeds doing it. Today many wine producers started to invest in Baalbek such as Chateau Ka. Vineyards cover almost 250 ha in the region. National and international orientation:

Even though wine production is a locally based activity this doesn’t mean that it’s a closed activity developing in self-sufficiency; it’s the exact opposite. One of the important indicators that measure the success of local based activity is its national and international orientation. “Local and international become, then, the two poles of a new dialectics of development: the firm is then oriented to the local dimension (to turn into account the stock of techno-scientific and cultural and professional knowledge) and to the external dimension (looking for stimuli and provocations for the innovation, the productive differentiation, to organize new networks of exchanges and collaborations).41

Wine industry in the Bekaa is nationally oriented in different ways. “However, the optimal location for production does not necessarily coincide with the optimal location for consumption.”42The Bekaa consumption of the wines produced locally, does not exceed 2% to 3%, of its total production which accounts for 50% of the Lebanese market.

39 By winegrowers we mean the people who cultivate vineyards but do not produce wine 40 By wine producers we mean people who produce wine. They might be winegrowers at the same time but not necessarily. 41 GAROFOLI G. (1993): “Economic development, organization of production and territory”, In: Revue d’économie industrielle, Vol. 64, 2nd trimestre 1993, pp.22-37. 42 Op. cit ISARD Walter, (1956)


359

This fact forced producers to have their commercialization and marketing offices outside the Bekaa and further near the consumption regions especially Beirut and Mount-Lebanon. These regions benefits from the localization of part of the wine activity through job opportunities created. Furthermore the national orientation of wine activity is manifested through the localization of some wine related activities outside the Bekaa such as printing houses and label makers. Finally wine producers constantly take part of exhibitions on the national level to promote their wines.

Regarding international orientation, 50% of local production is exported (figure 5). Except grapes and some fertilizers the majority of inputs are imported (table 3). Almost all wineries hired to start up their businesses foreign experts especially from France, Spain and Italy. All machinery is also imported; contrariwise storage equipment that was 100% imported is now partially made in the Bekaa. Finally wine producers also take part in international salons and exhibitions.

Figure 5:

Table 3: Input import in 2013 (thousands of USD) Country Bottles Cork stoppers Barrels Caps Germany 10 0 1 0 KSA 3,978 0 0 0 Belgium 115 0 0 0 Bulgaria 198 0 0 0 China 223 1 1 0 Denmark 0 1 0 0 Egypt 2,024 0 0 0 UAE 29 0 0 0 Spain 0 41 0 0 USA 3 0 0 0 France 1,045 49 1,077 17 Greece 82 0 0 0 Hungary 0 0 17 0 Italy 1,331 0 1 0 Kuwait 199 0 0 0 Portugal 0 1,453 1 0 Syria 88 0 0 0 Moldova 10 0 0 0 UK 68 0 0 0 Turkey 53 0 0 0 TOTAL 9,456 1,545 1,098 17

01.0002.0003.0004.0005.000

Valu

e (t

hous

ands

of U

SD)

Destination

Wine Export (2009 et 2012)

2009

2010

2011

2012


360

Communal organization of production: a new axis for development “Paradoxically, the enduring competitive advantages in a global economy lie

increasingly in local things - knowledge, relationships, and motivation that distant rivals cannot match”.43

Localization of wine industry in the Bekaa goes beyond the abundance of natural resources and the existing agricultural cluster in the region. In addition to these two factors wine industry benefits of the advantages and opportunities that the “community” of the Bekaa offers in terms of economic externalities, history, social organization, industrial atmosphere and localized networks. “Local specificities are mainly based on localized networks among firms and also on specific relationships between economic structure and the environment and the local “milieu””44.

Economic theoreticians have for so long ignored spatial aspects of economic development and considered geography as a passive portion of nation, over which various economic transactions take place. Development was considered as a wonderland of no spatial dimensions (ISARD W. 1956). In the best case, localization of productive activities would be considered significant component insofar as it reduces transactions costs. “The location of production is an obvious feature of the economic world”45. A firm would be localized where tangible local resources such as land, labor, capital and transport are cheap. But empirical observations and the multiplication of cases in different countries (technology in Silicon Valley, wine cluster in California, fashion shoe companies in north Italy, “la troisieme Italie”, nanotechnology in Grenoble …) showed that space embodies more aspects than the only low transactions cost. This new interpretation of space is due to the emergence of the “community”. “In these new interpretations space assumes the distinguishing feature of territory; it becomes a strategic factor of development opportunities and of its specific characteristics.” 46 Wine industry in the Bekaa could be considered as a local productive system formed by a number of small and medium firms. According to Garofoli, such a system has specific structural characteristics. A remarkable productive specialization at the local level and an important production of the local system that covers a significant part of national or even international production of a specific product

The Bekaa gathers 50% of Lebanese wine makers, 70% of vineyards and several input suppliers such as pesticides, equipment, agricultural materials suppliers. The “community” puts together various industries and sectors related to wine production cycle and produces 74% of national wine production. On the international market the Lebanese wine production in general is still slight and targets especially the Lebanese Diaspora. The Bekaa presents two different levels of local productive specialization classified by regions: High level of specialization in West Bekaa and Zahle. Low level of specialization in Baalbek

This classification is due to “seniority” of the practice of the activity that differs from one region to the other.

43 PORTER M.E. (1998): “Clusters and the New Economics of Competition”, Harvard Business Review, November / December 1998, p. 77. 44 GAROFOLI G., Op.cit, 45 KRUGMAN P. (1995): “Development, Geography and Economic Theory”, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, p. 33. 46 GAROFOLI G., Op.cit,


361

The high horizontal integration of production caused by a high level of division of labor between firms that gives rise to very close input-output relations

The versatility of manpower within every firm makes vertical integration limited. On the other hand, division of labor especially between wine producers and winegrowers induces a high level of horizontal integration on the local level.

This characteristic would be more significant in systems where a very large number of small firms practice complementary activities such as textile or mechanic activities. In our case the division of labor is limited to wine producers and winegrowers and other complementary input suppliers. Having intense input-output relations requires the presence of larger diversification of important input suppliers within the community such as cork stoppers, barrels and bottles’ suppliers. In the Lebanese case in general this is almost impossible especially cork stoppers and barrels that need special raw materials. On the other hand even though producing such materials locally is impossible, we are witnessing today the increase of mass import of cork stoppers by some local trader to buy them later on the local market. The “plurality of protagonists” and the lack of a leader or dominant firm

This characteristic is partially compatible with our case. The “plurality of protagonists” does exist in the Bekaa but this does not prevent monopolistic behavior or dominance of some firms. The gap between the entrances of different firms onto the market gave some of them certain advantages like acknowledgment and consumers trust. However the fast growth of new arrivals will sooner or later fulfill this gap. A remarkable specialization of production at the level of the firm and plant

As a result of specialization, knowledge accumulates over time and facilitates the introduction of new technologies. The transformation of the knowledge of each individual actor into the “common economic heritage” of the area and the increase in the “face to face” relationships between economic “actors” which increases the overall efficiency of the local system

In such systems secrets do not take long before they reveal due to the existing industrial atmosphere where knowledge spreads in the air. Due to geographical proximity actors meet each other constantly and exchange almost on daily basis, multiple information on outlet markets, alternative technologies, new raw materials, new commercial and financial techniques as well as “savoir-faire”. In addition the common interests of actors make transfer of information a primary objective. For example any illness in one of the vineyards is contagious and may be a disaster for the whole system which makes spread of such information a primordial issue for all actors. The high level of skills of workers in the area, as a result of a historical sedimentation of knowledge on the applied technologies

This is what A. FERGUENE calls “dynamique d’apprentissage”. The historical presence of wine production in the Bekaa increases manpower skills in the whole “community” as well as the transfer of “savoir-faire” through generations. In addition the agricultural cluster of the Bekaa makes of almost every resident a farmer. We can add to these characteristics, the complex tissue of relationships between local actors that combine competition and cooperation at the same time

In any business we can rarely find cooperation between rivals. The relationship between them is driven by competition, economic interests and the race to gain market shares. One of the added values of the community is that it ties between different economic actors, rivals or not, profound relationships that drive them to cooperate and help each other beyond


362

competition. Common culture, history, concerns, difficulties and problems in addition to face to face relationships make these actors share more than market and commercial connections. Over time develops an awareness that working towards common interests achieves individual ones. This is what’s called communal governance or local governance. However that does not mean that competition and conflict of interests does not exist in such systems. (Unfortunately we don’t have enough space to develop these ideas in this paper) Conclusion

The value of space in economic theory was first put forward by Alfred Marshall at the end of the nineteenth century. Geography as a determinant factor for economic development has known its success in the 70s of the twentieth century, led by Italian theorists. This success is due to the emergence of "community" as a strategic factor in development. While this emergence has first occurred in developed countries, “community” seems to be a particularly relevant concept that helps analyzing development opportunities in less developed countries. Political, economic and institutional problems in the South encourage local communities to react and take action to improve their living standards. “Community” with what it embodies of historical, cultural, economic and social seems to be the most appropriate scope in this mobilization.

Geographical proximity, natural resources and built ones, social capital, and other tangible and intangible factors are tools offered by the community which ensure its development.

Economic specialization is one of the natural outcomes of a “community”. It's like manners, habits, beliefs, lifestyles that automatically develop with the evolution of the “community” over time and depending on the factors surrounding this development. The practice of wine activity in the Bekaa is not the product of chance. It’s a selective choice made by “the community” of the Bekaa considering its composition and the resources it provides. This activity creates a local economic dynamism reflected by income generation, employment and new complementary activities. The continued growth of local productive system in Bekaa and its remarkable evolution raises new questions that need careful thought. How to maintain the system and ensure its viability and sustainability? How to govern the “community” and not allow conflicts of interest to prevail over cooperation?

Besides the system itself other problems emerge. In terms of demography, the Bekaa currently hosts a large number of Syrian refugees who disturb the demographic balance of the region. What are the repercussions of this situation, related to Syrian conflict that we cannot predict the duration, on the local productive system and the community in general? Similarly intensive and uncontrolled urbanization that invades Lebanon will it save the Bekaa and agriculture in general? Such problems go beyond the “community” will and we shall find solutions at the national level. References: Becattini G. (1989) : « Les Districts Industriels En Italie », In Maruani Et Alii (Eds.), La Flexibilité En Italie, Tenmire, Syros Alternatives, Paris, Pp. 261-270. Bennafla K. (2006): « Le Développement Au Péril De La Géopolitique: L’exemple De La Plaine De La Békaa (Liban). », Géocarrefour, Vol.81/4, 2006. Darwich S. (2004): “Lebanon’s Agricultural Potential: A Policy Analysis Matrix Approach”, Ird Editions. Darwich S. (2004) : « Enjeux De Reconversion Rurale Dans La Béqaa (Liban), Politiques Publiques Et Cultures Illicites », Environnement Et Société Rurale En Mutation-Approches Alternatives, Ird. Editions, Pp. 324-338. Ferguene A. (2007) : « L’insertion Dans Le Global Des Economies Locales Et Ses Retombées Territoriales : Le Cas De La Vallée En Haute-Savoie », Programme D’appui A La Recherche


363

En Sciences Sociales Entre La France Et Le Maghreb (Fsp), Dynamiques D’agglomération Des Activités Productives Et Gouvernance Territoriale, Processus De Territorialisation Et Internationalisation, Toulouse, 3 Et 4 Mai 2007. Garofoli G. (1993): “Economic Development, Organization Of Production And Territory”, In: Revue D’économie Industrielle, Vol. 64, 2nd Trimester 1993, Pp.22-37. Haddad S. (2009): « France-Liban-Syrie », Outre-Terre, 2009/3 N° 23, P. 173-178. Isard Walter, “Location And Space-Economy: A General Theory Relating To Industrial Location, Market Areas, Land Use, Trade And Urban Structure”, Chapter 2. The Technology Press Of Massachusetts Institute Of Technology And John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, Chapman & Hall, Ltd., London, 1956. P.31. Kouzami M. (2002): « Stratégies Et Politiques Agricoles, Etude De L’existant, L’espace Rural Libanais », République Libanaise, Ministère De L'agriculture, Direction Des Etudes Et De La Coordination, Fao Projet "Assistance Au Recensement Agricole", Janvier 2002. Krugman P. (1995): “Development, Geography And Economic Theory”, Massachusetts Institute Of Technology Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1995. Meouchy N. (Dir.) (2002): « France, Syrie Et Liban 1918-1946 : Les Ambiguïtés Et Les Dynamiques De La Relation Mandataire. », Presses De L’ifpo, 19 Mars 2014 Pp. 14, 146-149, 193-195. Porter M.E. (1998): “Clusters And The New Economics Of Competition”, Harvard Business Review, November / December 1998.Pp. 77-90. Porter M. (2003): “Clusters And Regional Competitiveness: Recent Learnings”, International Conference On Technology Clusters, Montreal, Canada, 7 November 2003. Saade R.F. (1973): « Réalités De L'agriculture Libanaise », In: Tiers-Monde. 1973, Tome 14 N°54. Pp. 425-436. Schmitz H. (1989): “Flexible Specialization: A New Paradigm Of Small-Scale Industrialization”, Discussion Paper, N°261, Institute Of Development Studies, University Of Sussex. Schmitz H. (1990) : « Petites Entreprises Et Spécialisation Souple Dans Les Pays En Développement », Travail Et Société, Vol. 15, N° 3, Pp. 271-305. Les Comptes Economiques Du Liban 2003, Elaborés Et Rédigés Sous La Direction De Robert Kasparian, République Libanaise, Présidence Du Conseil Des Ministres, Mission Des Comptes Economiques, Mai 2006. Les Comptes Economiques Du Liban 2005, Elaborés Et Rédigés Sous La Direction De Robert Kasparian, République Libanaise, Présidence Du Conseil Des Ministres, Mission Des Comptes Economiques, Octobre 2007. Les Comptes Economiques Du Liban 2006-2007, République Libanaise, Présidence Du Conseil Des Ministres, Mission Des Comptes Economiques, Décembre 2008. Les Comptes Economiques Du Liban 2008, Elaborés Et Rédigés Sous La Direction De Robert Kasparian, République Libanaise, Présidence Du Conseil Des Ministres, Mission Des Comptes Economiques, Octobre 2009. Les Comptes Economiques Du Liban 2009, Elaborés Et Rédigés Sous La Direction De Robert Kasparian, République Libanaise, Présidence Du Conseil Des Ministres, Mission Des Comptes Economiques, Octobre 2010. Les Comptes Economiques Du Liban 2010, Elaborés Et Rédigés Sous La Direction De Robert Kasparian, République Libanaise, Présidence Du Conseil Des Ministres, Mission Des Comptes Economiques, Octobre 2011.


364

ARAB STUDENTS INSIDE THE SOVIET BLOC : A CASE STUDY ON CZECHOSLOVAKIA DURING THE 1950S AND

60S

Daniela Hannova, MA Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts, Department of World History

Abstract The paper focuses on the phenomenon of students from the so-called less developed

countries in communist Czechoslovakia, specifically Arab students in the 50s and 60s of the twentieth century. The first part of the paper focuses on a broader political and social context. Because it was the first wave of Arab scholarship holders supported by the Czechoslovak government to arrive at the end of the 50s, it is crucial to describe the shape of negotiations between the Czechoslovak and Arab sides. The second part of the paper emphasizes cultural agreements and types of studying in Czechoslovakia. Arriving abroad, preparatory language courses, everyday life of Arab students in Czechoslovakia and the conflicts they had faced are analyzed in the following subchapters. The problem of Arab student adaptation to the new environment and troubles caused by cultural differences are illuminated in the framework of these thematic sections. The final part of the paper outlines the Arab absolvents’ fates and their contacts with Czechoslovakia after ending their university studies and returning to their homeland.

Keywords: Students, universities, Czechoslovakia after 1948, Communism, everyday life, cultural history Introduction

The phenomenon of students from the so-called less developed countries in the Soviet Bloc is a part of history, where a lot of topics and possible methodological approaches meet. Beside the postwar course of divided Europe we have the reality of colonial decease in the “Third World”. Both The Eastern Bloc and The West, obsessed with their Cold War rivalry were trying to create a map colored according to their own interests. The postcolonial countries balanced their options between the two big players. In search of a new national identity these countries supported the idea of modernization and a boost of the level of education. From there on we come to the topic of modernization as a western concept and observe the importance of university education as a value for newly established systems. We move methodologically from political history towards cultural aspects and social sciences. Thanks to which we gain a whole new point of view at the social history of communist countries. Our main focus is to present the everyday quality of Arab student life in socialist Czechoslovakia. I Political and social context

The Czech foreign policy followed the Soviet one in all causes including the Middle East. The short episode of Czechoslovakian military support for the newly established state of Israel in 1948 characterizes the postwar tactics of Soviet foreign policy. The following shift towards the Arab republics in the second half of 1950s was yet another move in the same strategy. In this sense, the Soviet Union and its puppets signed many economic, military, cultural or scientific agreements from 1955. (table 1) The signing of the well known contract


365

between Egypt and Czechoslovakia in 1955, guaranteeing Egypt army supplies created a precedent and made an example for similar agreements signed with other Arab republics. Cultural agreements followed not long after. In the 1960s we can detect an annoyed tone from Soviet side toward Arab states. The result of these expensive contracts did not live up to Soviet expectations.

This cooperation surely meant a start of a totally new relationship between the Soviet bloc and the Middle East. Army supplies were included in the contract and completed by military training which took place in Czechoslovakia. This could last from short term training up to two years spent in the Military Academy in Brno. At the same time experts from the Soviet bloc were present in Arab states: In 1956 there were 127 Czechoslovakians and 215 Russian advisers present in Egypt.47 This army support was not the only export. The construction of entire factory complexes, particularly in Egypt, Syria and Iraq was not less important. This was an important business for Czechoslovakia, which was to be instrumentalized for propaganda purposes. Archive documents from this period show many references about official military delegations in Czechoslovakia, mainly from Egypt. Meanwhile there were Arab artistic groups visiting the International film festival in Karlovy Vary and a football match between Dukla Prague and the Syrian military team in Aleppo.48 These examples show the wide variety of cooperation and ways how could Soviet bloc strove to gain strategic positions in the Arab world. The focus of this paper will not lie on the failure of these intentions. However, the Czechoslovakian perception of these visits should be stressed well as the resulting presence of Arab students and soldiers.

By the 20th century the Czechoslovakian public was influenced by specific stereotypes, drawing the picture of a wide “Orient”. This had emerged from its own historical context, geographical position, the image of the Turk49 and the nonexistence of a sea border. Some Czech orientalists do not hesitate to call this cultural conservatism “typical Czech provincialism” which strongly contradicted the changing reality of the 20th century.50 After entering the Soviet sphere, Czechoslovakia became a part of the “friendly allied states.” Within this capacity it had to agree to many ways of support under the flag of ideological brotherhood. In 1964 there were 331 students´ delegations received by the Czechoslovakian youth federation.51 This was not only dictated above but partly influenced by the mood of the society. In the 1950s young Czechoslovakian communists held an enthusiastic belief that colonial and postcolonial countries would turn towards socialism. Newspapers from this time period are laden with articles with this topic. International scholarships and other possibilities

The Czechoslovakian government offered students from countries with “potential” the possibility to apply for university scholarships. This was presented through their Foreign Offices or at the gathering of international organizations. The official name of this campaign was “The operation 90 – help for the less developed countries.”52 The number 90 implies the actual number of government scholarships. The first one was offered in 1956, when Czechoslovakia reached out to Egypt and Syria. Considering the international political situation, the fact that this transpired in 1956 is not surprising. The practical aspects of

47 Petr Zídek, Karel Seiber, Czechoslovakia and the Middle East in 1948-1989, Prague 2009, page 67. 48 AMZV, Syria TO-T 1955-1959, box 1, 116/215 covering 8, Cultural report Damascus, May 27. 1957. 49 Although there were never actually any Turkish military intervention, the concern about Ottoman Empire was common in the whole Europe, especially for the countries under the Austrian reign. The image of the Turks is a subject of several Czech historical books. For example: Tomáš Rataj, The Czech land in the shadow of the Crescent, Prague, 2002. 50 Miloš Mendel, Bronislav Ostřanský, Tomáš Rataj, Islam in the heart of Europe. The influence of Islamic civilization on Czech history, Prague 2007, page 136. 51 NA, ČSM – Central Committee Fund, Praha, box 1580, Promotional activity, 1964. 52 NA, KSČ-ÚV-100/3 Fund , The international section Prague, volume 13, a. j. 39, Prague, March 3. 1960.


366

choosing the candidates (promotion and interviews) were under the Arab´s competence. The final list was received by the Czechoslovakian Foreign Office, which usually respected the choice of recommended candidates. The format of these interviews is not reconstructable. We can easily deduct that contacts and family origin were important, especially in case of the military academy. The Czechoslovakian Foreign Office favored children from military and high officer´s families, in order to gain important economic contracts.

This type of scholarship was one of three possibilities to study in socialistic Czechoslovakia. The second was the communist party´s scholarship. The cooperation between European and Arab communist parties is a chapter of socialist international solidarity which is unknown to Czech historiography. No specific study has been conducted on the topic, although there is a sufficient amount of archive documents proving frequent mutual communication in the observed period of time. The Czechoslovakian side always required a recommendation from a local communist party or from some left wing authority. Without a recommendation students had no hope for obtaining the party´s scholarships. Thanks to these documents we can make interesting profiles of these young left wing sympathizers. From the mentioned characteristic we can reconstruct the values which were important to left wing movement and that they differed in each region. For instance, we can hardly find a young man in the Arab world in this time period, who was not full of nationalist emotion. This did not represent a contradiction to being a communist. On the contrary, Czechoslovakian communists were not found of any sign of nationalism, which was considered as reactionary. Same attitude was toward religion and town origin. Czechoslovakian officials were presumably unimpressed when reading about a young Lebanese communist, who came from a Muslim nationalistic bourgeois family53.54 The number of scholarships for Arab communists remained the same for the entire period.

The only group whose number rapidly increased during following years were Arabs paying for their study by themselves. Bilateral cultural agreements included a clause concerning this possibility. The Czechoslovakian side allowed a certain amount of students to study at their own expense in the first period from 1957-1964. Usually these students were treated with suspicion. Constant paranoia was distinctive to this era and these students did not fit the profile desired by the Czechoslovakian side. Most of these students came from urban environments, whit a bourgeois family background and strong nationalistic tendencies. Investing into education was obviously important for them. Choosing Czechoslovakia for this purpose was not motivated by sympathy for socialism, but most likely by finances and the good reputation of Czechoslovakia in Middle Eastern region. Studying in the Soviet bloc was simply cheap and the geographical position of Czechoslovakia convenient due to the possibility of traveling to West Germany. In 1966 the number of scholarships for Syrian students stayed below 20. The number of students who applied at the Foreign Office in Damascus to study at their expense was 870.55 And most of them were successful. The University of the 17th of November

The founding of The University of 17th of November56 in Prague in 1961 proves the importance of ideological influence on the so-called Third World for the Soviet side. It wasn’t the first institution of this nature in the Soviet bloc. The first one could be found in Russia called as a Peoples' Friendship University of the USSR founded in Moscow in 1961 and was

53 AMZV, TO-T Lebanon, 1955-1959, k. 1, 115/113, covering 3, Lebanese students, Beirut April 28. 1958. 54 The story of Arab communist in the Soviet bloc is not a part of this paper, but it is a part of author´s PhD. research. 55 AMZV, TO-T, Syria 1965-1969, box 1, 116/113, covering 7, Report for the Ministry of Education, 1967. 56 The date of 17th of November is referring to the International Students´ Day.


367

dedicated to Patrice Lumuba.57 These universities were open mainly to foreign students and concentrated left-wing activists from Africa, Asia a South America. This stands in the wider concept of ideologically taking control in countries still struggling to find a new identity in the postcolonial era. The University was established not only to provide courses in Marxism-Leninism for foreign students but also to be responsible for the administration and language courses. The number of foreign students in the Soviet bloc rapidly increased at the turn of 1950s and 1960s, especially of these from the less developed countries as they were called in official Czechoslovakian documents. In Czechoslovakia in 1960, 760 out of almost 2000 students were from less developed countries, 400 were Arabs.58 But already in 1963, there were 2183 students from less developed countries out of 3500 foreign students.59 The largest part of them (657) studied at the University of 17th November. During the 1960s this number constantly increased, with Arab students forming the majority of foreign students in Czechoslovakia.

The University was supposed to secure all parts of student life in Prague. The increasing number of foreign students caused problems with controlling them. The Czechoslovakian side tried to cover student´s leisure time and especially regulate their political activity. Students unions divided by nationality were established at the University. They were responsible for receiving newly arrived students and integrating them into social life. Thanks to the unions we have approximate numbers of Arab students, since most of them (even outside the University of 17th November) were members. Of course there were individuals who refused to join such organizations mostly because unions were closely controlled by representative embassies and usually some of the members were secret agents. The Czechoslovakian intention to entirely cover the lives of Arab students contrarily intensified their isolation from the society and more importantly raised the level of political activism.

In the late 1950s the biggest group of Arab students came from the Egyptian part of the United Arab Republic. With the beginning of 1960s they were replaced by a dominant group of Syrian students and an increasing number of students from Iraq. We could assume that Egyptian students ,being scholarship “pioneers” in the Soviet bloc, started preferring the western countries and were not interested in investing in eastern diplomas. The number of students from Algeria, Yemen and Lebanon didn’t exceed 50.60 The Palestinians did not create a separate union and were dispersed in other Arab unions. Although the number of students from less developed countries including Arabs increased during the 1960s, the Soviet bloc became skeptical about the actual ideological impact in the late 1960s. High investments in scholarships and in operation of the University were not paid for by factual socialist revolutions orchestrated by university graduates back at home. On the contrary, the Czechoslovakian side was more troubled by the presence of foreign students, which will be discussed in the part dedicated to everydayness. This disillusion and money caused that the university was shut down in 1974.

The University of 17th of November is highly significant not only for the student life in Prague in 1960s and the beginning of 1970s, but also completes the image of social life in socialist Czechoslovakia during this period. Along with state scholarship this shows how the regime tried to put an institutional shield on the intention of gaining influence in strategically important countries.

57 Patrice Lumumba was a politician, who fought for the liberation of Congo from Belgium. He was elected as a first independent Prime Minister of The Republic of Congo in 1960. After dramatic events he was executed the same year. Patrice Lumumba became immediately a face of the anti-colonial struggle. 58 NA, KSČ-ÚV-100/3 Fund, The international section Prague, volume 13, ar. j. 39, March 3. 1960. 59 Pavel Urbášek, Jiří Pulec, University systém in 1945-1969, Olomouc 2012, page 354. 60 NA, The Univesity of 17th November´s Fund, box136, Number 261, Reports about unions1962-1968.


368

The dimension of everydayness A one year long course of Czech language was obligatory for every foreign student.

The Czech authorities were strict about it, although a lot of students tried to avoid prolonging their studies by a year. Usually each student began their classes at the time of arrival in Czechoslovakia. The patience of Czech authorities was often tried the by students who postponed the final arrival date until the latest possible. We can find many proofs of irritated conversations between the Czech Foreign Office in Cairo or Damascus and The Ministry of Foreign Affairs. All of them deal with delayed arrivals, incorrect lists of students, insufficient explanations of demands and offers which were supposed to be included in the scholarships. We can easily deduce that the communication between both sides failed in setting clear terms concerning the conditions of the students´ every-day life.

The Czech-language courses were usually situated in former holiday resorts Czechoslovakian regional areas. This meant that Arab students were confronted with a provincial environment upon their arrival. The first serious conflict concerning Arab students arose in such a language course in the the first group of Syrian scholarship holders in 1957 staying in Unčín, a small town near the German borders. Most likely this group was transferred from France and England after the international crisis in 1956. We can deduce this from very indignant language used by students themselves. Although annoyed references about the facilities in these dormitories were expressed later by students who had consciously chosen Czechoslovakia, this case was quite outstanding. Documents of the Ministry of Foreign Affair describe that a group of Syrian students went on strike, refused to stay in Czechoslovakia and demanded the presence of Syrian ambassador.61 It is interesting that the pattern of communication that appears in this debate is present in later cases as well. Students arrived to Czechoslovakia with expectations influenced by the image of an industrial European country, including full material conveniences. The Czechoslovakian side on the other hand was surprised by the nature of the students´ demands. The opposite image of students from less developed countries trying to define themselves against colonial past was drawn by naïve expectations based on clichés. This mutual image of other is a methodological tool with which we can reconstruct the values of each side. In constructing the other the observer uses shared ideas anchored in collective identity. The concept of us and them is a social construct emerged from mutual participation.62

Conflicts concerning the aspects of everydayness were present during the students´ entire stay and were naturally strongest in the first years. One of the most interesting cultural contradictions was relation towards food. Food is a part of a wider culture concept as a combination of tradition, practice including innovations. As Massimo Montanari summarizes his concept “Food is culture when produced, prepared and eaten“.63 Quite naturally, Arab students behaved in their normal way even when studying in Czechoslovakia. However, what they considered natural turned out to be eccentric and provocative in Central European milieu and the Czechoslovak citizen of the 1950s automatically associated their behaviour with luxury, i.e. something inadequate. A good example is fruit: While common in the Mediterranean diet, it was very exotic in Central Europe. What was typical of socialist Czechoslovakia was a certain moderation and utilitarian approach to food, the primary aim, to put it simply, being to satiate hunger. It is no surprise, then, to read in the report describing excessive demands of Syrian students living in the Unčín

61 AMZV, TO-O Syria, 1945-1959, kr. 2, 116/38, Covering 26, Report about the visit of Syrian secretary, July 16. 1957. 62 Martina Krocová, Miloš Řezník, Boundaries and Identities in Academic Discourse, In: Crosiing Frontiers, Resisting Identities, Pisa, 2010, page 5. 63 Massimo Montanari, Food is Culture, Columbia University Press, 2006.


369

dormitory that they are used to using a lot of sugar and buying fruit, i.e. having products which are more expensive in Czechoslovakia than in Syria.64

In contrast with the Arab students’ complaints about the lack of products they were used to at home, the privileges that they enjoyed – and Czechoslovak students and citizens never experienced – were becoming more apparent. The most glowing example were Tuzex tokens,65 paid for with the money sent over from abroad. Furthermore, Arab students were free to travel to foreign countries, where they kept social relations with their compatriot students. Czechoslovak authorities were naturally irritated by such practice, but there was nothing they could do to prevent it. Having the opportunity to shop in Tuzex, Arab students differed in their clothing, too, which was completely out of reach for the common citizen.

Arab students differed also in the way they spent their free time. In any foreign country, the need to socialize with fellow countrymen is a common and understandable feature and foreign students studying in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s and 1960s were no exception. For the most part, Arab students spent their free time together and they kept extensive contacts with their embassies as well. This isolation from Czechoslovakian society started at the Czech-language courses, where they were isolated in small towns. Both the dormitory parties and the official union social occasions were held in the spirit of Arab culture. The students’ Prague life was affected by political development in their home countries, in particular through the employees of Arab foreign offices who were constantly checking on them.

In the late 1960s, the negative public opinion on foreign students began to escalate, nourished by bar conflicts which often ended in physical violence and police intervention. The so-called inside-out racism, applied by Czechoslovak authorities in such cases, incurred huge displeasure as well.66 Consequently, Czechoslovak citizens accused their government of sponsoring the foreign students’ studies and of favouring them to the detriment of domestic students – an opinion fostered not only by the physical collisions, but by the aforementioned eccentric, western-style clothing as well. Graduates

After graduating from a university, Arab students had to leave Czechoslovakia. In coactions with the Arab Foreign Office, they were denied a prolongation of their stay, therefore they could not remain in the country. Such a solution was in the interest of both the Czechoslovak and the Arab side. Former students could qualify for the permanent residence permit in two ways: Either they found a way to be useful for the Arab Foreign Office in Prague, e. g. they became its employees, or they had to please the Czechoslovak side. That was achieved most commonly by signing to the Secret Police. However, most former students opted for returning home. Syrian graduates of Czechoslovak universities, the focus of an analysis carried out by the Czechoslovak Foreign Office in Damascus, were praised in the analysis for their good professional fulfilment.67 Especially graduating from foreign technical universities seems to have resonated well in Syria and to have enabled individuals to find employment more easily. In 1965, there were altogether 42 Syrian graduates of Czech universities who returned to their home country.68 Forty-two is the first number we have come across when speaking of the Syrian students’ success rate. The period in question is the time when the first Arab students who had begun to make use of official scholarships, offered since

64 AMZV, TO-O Syria 1945–1959, box 2, 116/38, covering 27, Syrian scholarship holders: An opinion on the issue of discontent, September 2, 1957. 65 The Tuzex chain of shops was a special network of shops offering foreign goods. The products were paid for only by special tokens which were not freely available. 66 Urbášek, Pavel and Pulec, Jiří, Vysokoškolský vzdělávací systém v letech 1945–1969 (Olomouc 2012), p. 357. 67 AMZV, TO-T, Syria 1965–1969, box 1, 116/113, covering 6, Damascus, January 11, 1965. 68 Ibid.


370

the late 1950s, were finishing their studies. Ideally, the whole study period took 6 years (7 years for medical studies), including a one-year Czech language course. Therefore, the year 1965 was one of the first years that the Czechoslovak authorities took interest in with regard to the fates of the Arabs who returned home. Unfortunately, it is not known how many Syrians stayed in Czechoslovakia after completing their studies. If we are to assume that most of them did return to Syria, the number (42) speaks volumes about the graduates’ relative success rate. Already in 1966, the Damascus Foreign Office registered a minimum of 105 graduates.69

The aforementioned report is interesting not only because it helps us get a better idea about the number of Syrians returning with a diploma from a Czechoslovak university, but also because it partly clarifies the intentions of the Czechoslovak side. According to the instructions given by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Foreign Office was to stay in touch with the graduates, invite them to official social functions, involve them in the Commercial Department’s projects, employ them as teachers of Arabic or hire them during the organization of an international trade fair.70 The graduates from foreign universities were expected to form new social elite in Arab countries, at least to take up positions in state authorities. The Czechoslovak government was hoping for their friendly attitude and all sorts of business connections after the graduates assume more important positions.71 However, it turned out that the simple equation would not be as straightforward. Most graduates worried about keeping friendly contacts with the Czechoslovak Foreign Office for fear of arousing suspicion on the part of domestic authorities. Arab governments obviously feared that communism would infiltrate local politics.

Some of the graduates were probably nostalgic. They wanted to keep at least some contact with the country where they had spent several years studying. Naturally, the relations with left-wing graduates were the strongest. Even the 1965 Damascus Foreign Office report on the graduates’ relationship to Czechoslovakia indicates that while most graduates had reservations about local conditions during their studies, they found it difficult to unlearn the European way of life after their return to Syria.72 Thus, not always was their return smooth and some of the graduates had troubles getting used to Arab conditions anew. Nevertheless, it might be said that in most cases they returned home with a positive attitude to Czechoslovakia, although the Foreign Office does mention exceptions.73 Taking into account complaints received by the Dormitory Administration in Prague, which expressed discontent with frequent female visits at Arab male students’ rooms and with noisy parties also attended by members of the opposite sex, it is safe to assume that many of those relationships could have resulted in marriage and in the couples leaving the country. In 1966, one third of the Syrian graduates’ wives were of Czechoslovak origin, which strikes as a high number.74 It is a great pity that the fates of the married women are impossible to map, as they must have experienced a much bigger culture shock than their husbands after arriving in Czechoslovakia. In the 1960s Czechoslovakia, women were an equal part of the milieu, not only due to the communist efforts to emancipate women particularly in labour relations, but also thanks to the trend of equalizing the rights of men and women in most parts of Europe.75

69 AMZV, TO-T, Syria 1965–1969, box 1, 116/113, covering 6, Damascus, October 7, 1966. 70 AMZV, TO-T, Syria 1965–1969, box 1, 116/113, covering 6, Damascus, January 11, 1965. 71 For example, the FO report mentions that one of the graduates acts as the Mayor of Homs, while others hold important positions at ministries or in economic enterprises agencies, such as the Euphrates Dam Construction Agency, or Homs refinery. The contacts were important particularly for the FO commercial department, which tried hard to keep in close touch with the graduates. AMZV, TO-T, Syria 1965–1969, box 1, 116/113, covering 6, Damascus, October 7, 1966. 72 AMZV, TO-T, Syria 1965–1969, box 1, 116/113, covering 6, Damascus, November 11, 1965. 73 AMZV, TO-T, Syria 1965–1969, box 1, 116/113, covering 6, Damascus, October 7, 1966. 74 Most of them kept their Czechoslovak citizenship as well. Ibid. 75 On the issue of emancipation of women under communism, see e.g. Květa Jechová’s study on motherhood and unwanted children in Opozice a společnost po roce 1948 (Prague, 2009).


371

For a number of the wives, the new life in Arab milieu, where male authority is accented, must have been traumatizing. Because of the language barrier, those women also tended to establish relations only among themselves and with the Czechoslovak Foreign Office. They seem to have been uninterested in politics and rather to have been seeking friendships which could make their new lives more pleasant.76

In conclusion, it might be said that most information on the graduates were gathered by the University of 17th of November which, in cooperation with the Promotional Committee of the Communist Party and the Czechoslovak Youth Federation kept not only their addresses, but also brief characteristics; such activity resulted from the very reason for the University’s existence. Conclusion

Since 1956, Egyptian and Syrian students could study in Czechoslovakia thanks to the scholarship policy stipulated by cultural agreements. The agreements were made in the wake of political events in the late 1950s which forced Egypt to cooperate internationally with the Soviet Union and its allies. This was the first wave of the Czechoslovak government’s Arab scholarship holders, students from the so-called less developed countries. Over the years, Czechoslovakia made similar agreements with other Arab countries, too, although at times it had to deal with suspicion arising from the fear of communism being spread. Czechoslovak government scholarships were not the only possibility of studying in the country; e.g. Arab communist parties provided scholarships as well. Students who paid for their studies themselves were another important group among Arab students in Czechoslovakia, in fact they outnumbered the scholarship holders in the 1960s. Arab countries witnessed increased interest in obtaining diplomas from European universities, and Czechoslovakia would be chosen for several reasons. In addition to the country’s prestige earned by arms and material deliveries, the fact that studying in Czechoslovakia was cheaper in comparison to Western Europe played a role. Due to the increasing importance of African and Asian students from countries prioritized by the Czechoslovak foreign policy, the University of 17th of November was founded in Prague in 1961. Consequently, the University took over the organizational structure of language courses which were mandatory for the students after their arrival. It was significantly involved in the students’ lives and even provided patronage for their associations, whose activities it monitored systematically. Since the early 1960s, Arab students formed one of the largest groups of foreign students in Czechoslovakia. They studied predominantly technical or medical branches or natural sciences but there were a handful of artists and students of the humanities, too. Their studies would be made more difficult by the language barrier which was difficult to overcome even after completing the language course. Another possible reason for failure was the complicated mutual interpretation of the behaviour on both sides. While Arab students expected maximum helpfulness from Czechoslovak authorities, they met with incomprehension from the other side. The way they communicated was considered arrogant and their demands were regarded as excessive. The Czechoslovak side was also surprised by their huge political engagement which it tried to adjust with the help of student unions. For the most part, the graduates returned to their home countries and continued to keep in touch with the Czechoslovak Foreign Office; the relationship was intense and mutually beneficial. The graduates of Czechoslovak universities became a part of the newly forming social elite in modern Arab countries.

76 That is, at any rate, what the FO report on Czechoslovak wives shows. According to the report, the wives were too stupefied by the inferiority complex arising from their new environment, therefore not politically ready for the country; the husbands were more natural and heartier in their relation to the FO than the wives. AMZV, TO-T, Syria, 1965–1969, box 1, 116/113, covering 6, Damascus, October 7, 1966.


372

The distinctive paradox pervading throughout the work is the contradicting idea of an Arab student coming over under a project to help economically underdeveloped countries, and the same student walking the streets of Prague having a reputation of an eccentric dandy. The picture of an everyday Prague life in those “grey” times thus gets enlivened. References: Archives: The National Archives, The Archive of The Ministry of Foriegn Affairs, The Security Service´s Archive Literature: Martina Krocová, Miloš Řezník, Boundaries and Identities in Academic Discourse, In: Crosiing Frontiers, Resisting Identities, Pisa, 2010. Miloš Mendel, Bronislav Ostřanský, Tomáš Rataj, Islam in the heart of Europe. The influence of Islamic civilization on Czech history, Prague 2007. Massimo Montanari, Food is Culture, Columbia University Press. Pavel Urbášek, Jiří Pulec, University system in 1945-1969, Olomouc 2012. Petr Zídek, Karel Seiber, Czechoslovakia and the Middle East in 1948-1989, Prague 2009.


373

ARABIC CONSERVATION METHODOLOGIES

Bachir Keyrouz Architect and Urban conservator, PhD Thesis at the university:

Nova Gorica Located at Venice/St Elena

Abstract

As confirmed by countless sites that were included in Unesco’s World Heritage List, the historical cities of the Arabic world represent precious witnesses of a unique urban legacy featuring distinct spiritual, social, economic and artistic expressions. Throughout centuries, the cultural traditions of Arabic societies were able to crystallize usually in permanent form. Individual monuments and, especially in complex urban structures, reflect particular modes of articulating space and of integrating visual art into architectural structures. Through such crystallization processes, a great variety of regional expressions of Arabic heritagehas been produced, translating the basic attitudes of a religion that put strong emphasis on ritualized forms of social conduct and individual behavior, but was also able to integrate local traditions responding to specific environmental factors with surviving pre-Arabic heritage leading to a Sustainable Arabic Legacy. It is within this wider cultural debate between utopia and nostalgia that we have to position the issue of historical cities and to search for solutions capable of maintaining and developing them as vibrant generators of meaningful civic life, rather than lifeless empty shells or mere economic assets in the service of modern tourism – a phenomenon that is largely fuelled by people’s frustration with the sterility of their modern urban environment. The concept of historical urban landscapes is not absolutely new as one finds traces of this new ideology partially expressed in theories and International documents dating back to the 1930’s as well. What is new and significant perhaps is the changed perception at the potential of this concept, of not treating these urban areas as static objects of admiration but as living spaces for sustainable communities (Rodwell, 2007). Some key points regarding Conservation of Historic Urban Landscapes are listed as follows: Conservation of material architectural culture retains its place even today but is augmented by enhancing the intangible cultural values by present adaptations and future transmissions; of not saving them as museum pieces but as living spaces, by understanding the fact that they undergo dynamic and continual changes, thus recognizing the change in value judgments; of protecting urban environments of which authentic and integrated character contributes to local and national identity, and on a broader scale to global heritage; of protecting their environmental character by giving due importance to their settings, endangered by natural and ecological factors or destructive human interventions; of protecting the socio-economic and cultural character of the associated communities by recognizing these values and by retaining and re-interpreting, enhancing and enriching them further; byrealizing that all economic, social, cultural and environmental assets/capitals of urban environments are finite resources; thus integrating and combining economic, social, cultural and environmental development aspects, thereby promoting sustainable Urban Architectural Conservation has thus moved on from preserving the present past to conserving the future.

Keywords: Arabic societies, conservation metodologies


374

Article The historic cities of the Arabic world represent precious witnesses of a unique urban

legacy featuring distinct spiritual, social, economic and artistic expressions. Throughout centuries, the cultural traditions of Arabic societies were able to crystallizein individual monuments and in complex urban structures that reflect particular modes of articulating space and of integrating visual art into architectural structures. Through such crystallization processes, a great variety of regional expressions of Arabic heritage has been produced, which translated the basic attitudes of a religion that put strong emphasis on ritualized forms of social conduct and individual behavior, but was also able to integrate local traditions responding to specific environmental factors and surviving Arabic heritage. The term “Historic Urban Landscape” that would be used in the context of historic Arabic cities combines architectural and agricultural connotations. It links crystalline physical outcomes to natural growth processes. Seen in this light, historic urban landscapes could be interpreted as the result of a progressive unfolding of cultural seeds that have taken roots in the ground and that, guided by spiritual archetypes and corresponding patterns of human conduct, produce particular urban morphologies espousing the natural topographic constraints of given places. (Bianca, 2011) Organic growth processes of this type are always driven from within. They evolve by accumulating successive layers of structures and meaning, thereby generating the precious qualities of specific genius loci which are the pervading spirit of a place. (Giovannoni, 1913) Hence, they are radically differentfrom the artificial products of current mechanistic planning modes, which are based on abstract rational schemes imposed that are unable to dispense the sense of identity that connects people with their physical environment. The existence or absence of an inner source of life is what makes the difference. Therefore, sustaining Historic Urban Landscapes is, above all, a matter of reviving and strengthening these inner forces, rather than merely preserving the outermost layer of crystallization.

Stefano Bianca, Beyond Conservation : Towards Viable Rehabilitation Concepts for Historic Urban Landscapes in the Islamic World, 2011.

Gustavo Giovannoni, L’urbanisme face aux villesanciennes, with an introduction by Francoise Choay, Seuil, Paris (1998); first published as Vecchiecittàededilizianuova, UTET Libreria, Rome (1931); second edn, CittaStudiEdizione, Rome (1995). Giovannoni first set out the principal elements of his thesis in a set of papers that were published in 1913 under the title Vecchiecittàededilizianuova: ilquartiere del Rinascimento in Roma.

The accumulated architectural and urban expressions of Arabic cultures, as far as they have resisted the effects of time, belong to history and yet they continue to have a strong presence, due to the timeless values they incorporate. Following the above thoughts on Historic Urban Landscapes, this begs the question whether they should solely be considered in terms of frozen artifacts of a previous past, or whether they possess an inherent potential of future life and evolution. It is believed that Historic Arabic cities represent an important resource for revisiting the design of the contemporary built environment in the Middle East and for shaping a richer urban future. Their potential mission in this respect becomes particularly evidentagainst the background of current globalization trends, as based on modern Western development paradigms. Reflecting 19th-century materialistic ideologies and amplified by ever increasing technological leverage, unilateral modern development trends have exerted a totalitarian grip over the human mind and have resulted in enormous losses with respect to local cultural heritage, to historic urban landscapes and to natural resources. All around the world, a wealthaccumulated over centuries and millenaries is being depletedat incredible speed, and the Arabic region is no exception. Hence, preserving the genetic pool of natural and cultural variety from which future generations will be able to draw, has become an urgent task that must be integrated into modern development strategies. (Bianca, 2011)


375

Revitalizing historic cities must be seen as an essential part of that objective. While there is growing awareness today that human civilization as a whole has reached a critical turningpoint, the directions proposed differ widely. There are those who believe that ever new technologies and unrestricted economic liberalization will be able to cure the very problems generated by them, and there are those who would like to turn back the wheel by taking recourse to conservative or outright fundamentalist ideologies that negate the potential benefits inherent to modernity. In between these extremes, a third way seems to emerge, pursued by those who believe that new toolsto heal a damaged natural and cultural environment must be invented – and that some of these tools can be found by reinterpreting and adapting age-old pre-industrial principles that have long been discarded by Modernism.

Stefano Bianca, Beyond Conservation : Towards Viable Rehabilitation Concepts for Historic Urban Landscapes in the Islamic World, 2011. It is within this wider cultural debate between utopia and nostalgia that we have to position the issue of historic cities and to search for solutions capable of maintaining and developing them as vibrant generators of meaningful civic life, rather than lifeless empty shells or mere economic assets in the service of modern tourism. With regard to the case of historic cities in the Arabic world, one is struck by the speed with which destruction has taken place during the second half of the 20th century in the name of narrow-minded visions of “progress”, either by letting traditional urban structures decay beyond repair, or by deliberately replacing them with modern substitutesthat, while being “functional” in a limited utilitarian sense, lack the human qualities that were the hallmark of traditional structures. The reasons why this cultural shock took place so abruptly is a subject of its own. Suffice it to mention here the delayed impact of European 18th/19th-century colonization, followed by the sudden thrust of unreflected Modernism that started emerging when Arabic countries reached political independence in the mid-19th century.(Bianca, 2000) Paradoxically, political autonomy gave rise to even stronger cultural and economic dependence on hegemonial Western development paradigms – probably because Western educational, institutional and economic systems established during colonial times were simply adopted and continued without considering their negative impact on pre-existing local cultural traditions.

Stefano Bianca, “Urban Form in the Arab World – Past and Present”, Zürich/ London/ New York, 2000. Having traced as concisely as possible, the highlighting of some of the essential structural qualities of historic Arabic cites, in order to clarify the reason why their regeneration is desirable and necessary and why conservation alone will not suffice. As implied in the concept of Historic Urban Landscapes, these architectural features are by no means random or gratuitous formal expressions; they are the tangible manifestation of inner beliefs, motivations and corresponding behavioral archetypes that have governed individuals as well as the society as a whole. Conservation may preserve and freeze them in terms of “crystallized” cultural artifacts, but can hardly keep them alive, let alone create equivalent new structures. For trying to repair or reproduce the outer appearance without addressing the vital forces that have to animate and sustain the cells of the underlying organism as a whole would be a futile exercise. The first highlighted essential structural quality would be that of forging and sustainingauthentic living communities which is accomplished by the qualities of an urban environment that, through its pedestrian scale and through qualitative configurations of urban space, fosters closeness and interaction between residents. It provides spatial sequences and architectural articulations that appeal to the sensorial perception of its inhabitants and incorporate symbolic messages. The deep structure of the urban fabric passively reflects and actively shapes specific cultural codes and attitudes, thus strengthening the correlation between social patterns and the respective physical environment. The evident inner unity


376

between interacting spiritual and physical dimensions commits and engages the users of urban space; it stimulates them to incorporate and enact shared cultural values on daily basis and thus generates a collective sense of identity. (Giovannoni, 1913)

Gustavo Giovannoni, L’urbanisme face aux villesanciennes, with an introduction by Francoise Choay, Seuil, Paris (1998); first published as Vecchiecittàededilizianuova, UTET Libreria, Rome (1931); second edn, CittaStudiEdizione, Rome (1995). Giovannoni first set out the principal elements of his thesis in a set of papers that were published in 1913 under the title Vecchiecittàededilizianuova: ilquartiere del Rinascimento in Roma. In the particular case of Arabic towns, the deep structure of the urban fabric is defined by a polyvalent civic center at pedestrian scale focused around the main center that interconnects all strands of public life. The core Mosques or Churches itself is a paradigm of the unity between religious and mundane concerns, since traditionally it served not only a prayer hall, but also as a meeting place, an educational facility and, particularly its courtyard, as a leisure space, thus constituting a focal point for community purposes. Meanwhile, domestic life is set off from the public domain and protected as an almost sacred private space. Residential communities are largely self-contained and strengthened by an architectural clustering of houses and neighborhoods that emphasizes social and physical solidarity between neighbors. A highly differentiated system of street hierarchies, gates and thresholds controls and manages the transitions between public and private territories. All these spatial provisions reflect a code of conduct inspired by customs. The second highlighted essential structural quality would be that of rootingpeople in specific places is a matter of emotional interactionbetween residents and their built environment. In medieval cities, individuals and social groups had much more freedom to mold and manage their own living space than is now the case in bureaucratically governed modern cities and their industrially produced housing compounds. Moreover, due to the ongoing, incremental renewal of individual cells of the urban body, as opposed to the wholesale demolition and construction of complete areas, people’s personal nexus with their living space could develop in much more intense ways. The more they were involved in shaping their own built environment, the more they were able to identify with it. Rather than being reduced to the state of an anonymous commodity, architecture thus became an animated and personalized shell responding to people’s actual living patterns and mirroring their emotional engagement. In the particular case of Arabic towns, rooting of the inhabitants was highly favored by the patterns of the private precinct and the courtyard house, ubiquitous archetypes that were prevalent in most urban places of the Arabic world. The house as an autonomous container, open towards the dome of heaven and focused around its own center, produced a particularly strong personalization of family space. Moreover, while forming largely independent and self-sufficient entities, the residential units were themselves embedded in larger housing clusters, which produced extremely coherent urban structures. The fact that each house was a Holon contained inside a larger Holon, ultimately encompassing the complete town, accounts for the cellular and “organic” nature of historic Arabic cities. It also explains why it is impossible to intervene on single units or monuments without considering the wider urban context to which they adhere. (Bianca, 2011) The third highlighted essential structural quality would be that of providing inspiration and meaning to human life no longer is a concern pursued by today’s commoditized architectural production. More often than not, the spiritual reality sustaining man and nature is being ignored or suppressed. Nevertheless, the emergence of all sorts of poor compensations suggests that the human thirst for meaning is still alive. What all pre-modern traditions, including medieval cultures in Europe and the Arabic world, had in common was the urge to reflect higher forms of being in tangible human artifacts, a task that was performed by their builders, artists and craftsmen. Built structures had to relate to, symbolize or physically


377

embody cosmic principles that shaped the respective culture, in order to connect people with the one and ultimate reality that was their source of life. The specific way in which the sacred dimension was translated and “materialized” into rituals, buildings and space configurations has always defined the individual character and identity of ancient cultures. Modern secularization, the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward nonreligious values and secular institutions, has weakened this bond, with the result that the sacred content has often surrendered to surrogates of ideological nature that are neither anchored in metaphysical grounds nor in sensory human experience and are therefore unable to animate the built environment. In the specific case of Arabic towns, the sacred was not limited to specific religious buildings or monuments but conceived as being omnipresent in God’s creation. This perspective has deeply informed the non-figurative visual arts of the Arab religion.

Stefano Bianca, Beyond Conservation : Towards Viable Rehabilitation Concepts for Historic Urban Landscapes in the Islamic World, 2011. The brief description of the medieval Arabic city in the foregoing paragraphs admittedly refers to architectural and social archetypes of an ideal nature. In the present incarnation of Arabic towns, many of their traditional features are still transpiring, but at the same time, they are fused with modern-day influences and realities that add new aspects to it. (Bianca, 2011) Today, in Arabic historic urban structures, as far as they have survived, are generally inhabited by a much poorer segment of the population. This population’s way of life at this stage of its development lacks the means to properly maintain the architectural patrimony. Nevertheless, in spite of unavoidable demographic and economic changes, new social networks and collective identities have emerged that match the historic fabric and thus have the potential to keep it alive while adapting it to changing circumstances. For these communities, one of the major assets of the historic site is its close ties between living and working within a warm pedestrian environment that in most cases has remained at the very center of a growing urban mass. The asset of centrality, however, also gives rise to a major threat, inasmuch as it is the reason for historic areas becoming potential targets for speculative urban redevelopment, particularly once their physical conditions have declined. Hence the confrontation between two divergent claims based on radically opposed agendas arises. On one hand, there are desperate calls for conservation of an increasingly dilapidated but culturally precious historic fabric, and, on the other hand, the economic pressures for demolition and wholesale redevelopment, often in conjunction with cutting new vehicular access roads through the body of the old city.

Stefano Bianca, Beyond Conservation : Towards Viable Rehabilitation Concepts for Historic Urban Landscapes in the Islamic World, 2011. The polarization into these radical alternatives obscures the possibility, and actually the need, to search for a far more appropriate intermediate option that would consist in sustaining the continuous evolution of the historic city as a living entity according to its own morphological premises and constraints. This choice would have to build on mobilization and in-depth revitalization of existing communities, combined with a discerning mix of plot-by-plot conservation and renewal of existing physical structures – both with the objective of keeping local cultural traditions alive. The result may be a hybrid that creatively connects tradition and innovation, thus maintaining the authentic spirit of the place. It appears as the only viable option, because archaeological conservation methods may be applicable to single monuments of exceptional value, but “freezing” complete parts of a vibrant urban fabric is socially and economically unfeasible. Meanwhile, wholesale redevelopment according to alien modern planning and design standards is equally undesirable, as it would mean the collapse of the existing physical fabric and of the corresponding socio-economic networks.


378

Indeed, as stated earlier, the only way to transcend the sterile contradictions between past and future, conservation and development, is to opt for the regeneration of local societies from within, by engaging and strengthening the intrinsic powers of culture as prime sources of rejuvenation, creative assimilation and community identity. Recently, international organizations such as UNESCO have moved precisely in this direction, by questioning the conventional modern development paradigm and upgrading “Culture” to a comprehensive notion that would serve as matrix for a complete vision of human needs and aspirations. “Culture” would thus have to absorb and to reform certain concepts of unilateral “Development” rooted in European 19th-century positivism that went out of control, as soon as they limited themselves to the promotion of isolated quantitative and material aspects of life. Through this revision, Culture would reclaim its seminal importance, rather than being reduced to marginal activities, such as folklore, museums, historic research, etc. Reclaiming its central position is, however, not synonymous with promoting homogenized forms of Culture. On the contrary, to reach the necessary depth and to be productive, Culture needs to be grounded in the regional and the local context for only by incorporating itself in distinct and diverse local communities will it be able to act as an antidote to sweeping globalization trends that are fuelled by uncontrolled economic forces. Attractive as the holistic vision of “Culture” may be in theoretical terms, it has yet to be translated into the daily operational practice of governments, municipal administrations, city planners, donor organizations, etc. who are responsible for conceiving and implementing urban rehabilitation programs in Arabic regions. In order to penetrate the corresponding policies and procedures, the vectors of Culture need to be, first, acknowledged and, second translated in such ways, that they can interact with and, if necessary, change conventional planning concepts and techniques at all levels of action – from the broad strategic directions to the manner of intervening at the grass-root level. In summary, in order for urban regeneration to be successful, it has to build on the interaction between two factors: On the one hand, a community driven by shared visions, values and daily cultural practice, and, on the other hand, the reflection of such values in a meaningful physical environment that confirms and supports the collective vision.Continued interchange between intangible cultural ideals and their actual embodiment in tangible spatial forms is of the essence for a vibrant cultural production process. At any rate, the live experience of this chain of mutual exchange provides the basis for people's identification with their environment. Fostering such interactive processes is a precondition for accumulating a cultural capital that can root the present in the past and project it into the future, thereby overcoming the artificial gap between Tradition and Modernity. (Barillet, 2003)

Christian Barillet, Thierry Joffroy, Isabelle Longuet, A Guide for African Local Governments: Cultural Heritage & Local Development, December 2003. Published by Craterre-ENSAG / Convention France-UNESCO. For a number of reasons, historic towns in the Arabic region are privileged experimental testing grounds for local societies to develop their indigenous versions of Modernity, or, vice-versa, modern versions of vernacular traditions. First, these historic structures, although dilapidated, still convey a symbolic reference to essential and timeless human values that many sterile modern structures are in lack of. Second, the communities inhabiting them today are still rooted in quasi-vernacular lifestyles that are richer in human and cultural substance than those living a westernized life in wealthier districts. Their social bonds, their sense of enterprise and their eagerness to evolve make them potential motors of urban rehabilitation from within. Third, the poor physical condition of historic districts urgently calls for renewal and therefore opens an ideal opportunity for experiments that attempt to adapt the basic morphology of the traditional urban fabric to contemporary needs and facilities. Lastly, examples of successful rehabilitation of historic areas may provide


379

incentives for the promotion of more qualitative modes of urban development in other residential districts, including the upgrading of informal settlements. “In order to engage in such experimental modes of Cultural Development, corresponding types of new procedures need to be found. An example would be the alternative approach taken by theDarb al-Ahmar project in Cairo”. (Bianca, 2004) It has relied on open-ended, "organic" processes that unfolded step by step in coherent, but not mechanical ways. Within this context, the first aim was to understand the local society's internal systemsand modes of function, as well as to detect the internal resources that are available to it in overt or hidden form. No comprehensive blueprint, no sequential or directional implementation plans were fixed in advance, but custom-tailored layers of action have been formulated in response to perceived local needs and opportunities. At each stage, the consequences of previous interventions was analyzed and taken into account, creating several loops of feed-back. In other words, a tentative holistic vision of desired goals and improvements was implicitly there from the beginning; it unfolded and materialized through a multitude of interrelated and synergetic initiatives that eventually crystallize around the initial core idea, thereby materializing it in its final shape.

Cairo – Rehabilitating an Urban Metropolis », ed. By S. Bianca and Ph. Jodidio, Torino 2004 and 2007. To sustain such a cyclic and holistic system, interaction between soft and hard project components must be allowed to take place. The hard components include formal constraints such as a master plan, by-laws, administrative procedures that must be formulated in such ways that they encourage the desired development to happen within their boundaries. The soft components relate to live processes that cannot be ordered and controlled from outside, but need to be stimulated from within, by providing appropriate social and economic incentives, coordinating individual initiatives and seizing upcoming development opportunities. These can only be captured through field activities at micro-level that are planned and implemented in close interaction with residents, and that focus on specific sites and their inherent conservation, re-use or redevelopment potentials. By penetrating the small grain of the social and physical urban fabric, this "Focused Integrated Approach", as it was named, can act in much greater depth than conventional planning methods do. Its particular merits are, first, that it interrelates physical renewal and socio-economic improvement, and, second, combines top-down and bottom-up implementation strategies, adapting them to well-defined places and matching constituencies. Moreover, it enables relatively small integrated interventions, once they have been launched and taken a life of their own, to act like seeds, thus creating a momentum of natural growth that can replicate initial efforts and extend them into larger areas with a minimum of external support. In igniting such self-reproducing systems and processes, it is believed that this is the only realistic way to foster sustainable rehabilitation that will last beyond the completion of particular physical projects. (Barillet, 2003)

Christian Barillet, Thierry Joffroy, Isabelle Longuet, A Guide for African Local Governments: Cultural Heritage & Local Development, December 2003. Published by Craterre-ENSAG / Convention France-UNESCO. Having stated the need for a particular, qualitatively different treatment of Historic Arabic Sites, one also has to be aware, however, of the functional connections and interdependences that exist between historic and modern urban entities. Historic towns cannot survive in artificial isolation, but need to establish a viable symbiosis with their modern counterparts.Their traditional central areas need to rely on complementary functions and facilities provided by modern districts. Their residential areas need to be protected against the pressures of vehicular traffic and commercial activities in order to retain their special character within the total urban system. Residents of historic towns will have to make certain trade-offs between reduced vehicular accessibility and the potentially high quality of life


380

provided by a protected historic environment in very central location. How to turn this centrality of historic towns to their advantage, rather than letting it become a source of destruction, is one of the main problems confronting historic towns in the Arabic world today, a problem that must be solved by appropriate legal measures that can regulate the real-estatemarket and at the same time ensure that gains fromincreasing land values are re-invested in the betterment of the historic town, rather than being skimmed off by private speculation. The coming years will be decisive for the fate of historic towns in the Arabic world. On one hand, the life span of many of the surviving urban structures comes to an end and will require conservation, repair, upgrading or sensitive plot-by-plot renewal. On the other hand, the dynamics of economic liberalism and globalization in emerging countries will exert unprecedented development pressures, due to the increase in available private investment capital. Since governments will hardly be in a position to save and conserve historic towns with public funds, it will be necessary to attract and control private funds flowing into urban rehabilitation. To this end, it will be essential to anticipate and steer future change pro-actively. This can only be achieved by engaging early on in viable rehabilitationand revitalization scenarios, rather than reacting to destruction post-factum or aiming at unrealistic conservation schemes. What is at stake is far more than the protection of precious physical relics from the past. It is the transmission of a living cultural tradition with its intangible values and customs, its collective rituals projected into spaces and buildings, its environmental responses and its patterns of social conviviality. The goal, then, is nothing else but a living, vibrant and evolving historic urban landscape that has restored its capacities for regeneration from within. We move on summing up the Arabic methodologies, management, and protection systems of conservation. The Eastern world, is characterized by urban landscapes wherein old buildings are disappearing at an alarming rate and being transformed by new constructions due to high economic growth, technical progress and accelerated town planning such as in the Middle East like Beirut, Lebanon and others in the West, the low-scale historic buildings in the urban landscapes are being overshadowed by high-rises and new architectural jargons. The integrity of the Historic Urban Landscape is at risk and is a matter of current international debates. Looking back from where we stand today, we seem to have completed a full circle in urban conservation, beginning by saving the integrity of historic monuments by recommending respect to the surroundings of monuments to now embarking on a new cycle of recommending respect to the surroundings of historic urban landscapes in order to save their integrity. All these past experiences and concepts regarding urban conservation reveal it to have become a broad discipline recognizing cultural diversityembodied in various forms, scales and spirit. The keymessage being emphasized is to convert passive and object-oriented urban conservation practicesinto active and culturally oriented continual processes pivoted around human values, with arespect for the past, understanding the present and concern for the future. References: Cairo – Rehabilitating an Urban Metropolis », ed. By S. Bianca and Ph. Jodidio, Torino 2004 and 2007. “Living in Historic Cairo”ed. By F. Daftary, E. Fernea and A. Nanji, London 2010. Stefano Bianca, Beyond Conservation : Towards Viable Rehabilitation Concepts for Historic Urban Landscapes in the Islamic World, 2011. Stefano Bianca, “Urban Form in the Arab World – Past and Present”, Zürich/ London/ New York, 2000. Unesco’s World Heritage Centre, “Managing Historic Cities”, world Heritage papers nr. 17, Paris 2010.


381

J.P. de Cuellar, “Our Creative Diversity”, Report of the World Commission on Culture and Development, ed., Unesco 1995. Christian Barillet, Thierry Joffroy, Isabelle Longuet, A Guide for African Local Governments: Cultural Heritage & Local Development, December 2003. Published by Craterre-ENSAG / Convention France-UNESCO. Dennis Rodwell, Conservation and Sustainability in Historic Cities, 2007. Blackwell Publishing, Ltd 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK. George Braziller, Masters of World Architect, March 1990, 1stedition. Gustavo Giovannoni, L’urbanisme face aux villesanciennes, with an introduction by Francoise Choay, Seuil, Paris (1998); first published as Vecchiecittàededilizianuova, UTET Libreria, Rome (1931); second edn, CittaStudiEdizione, Rome (1995). Giovannoni first set out the principal elements of his thesis in a set of papers that were published in 1913 under the title Vecchiecittàededilizianuova: ilquartiere del Rinascimento in Roma. Ministry of Housing and Local Government,The South East Study, 1961–1981. Published May 1964, London, vol. 694 cc919-1050. William Morris, Manifesto of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings(the SPAB Manifesto), 1877, SPAB, London. Notre Dame University- Louaize, Faculty of Architecture, Art and Design. Evolution and Trends in Restoration Lecture, 2011.


382

CONVIVIALITY IN ANTIOCH ON THE ORONTES THROUGH THE STUDY OF FUNERARY STELES DATING

FROM THE ANTIQUITY

Evrim Güven, PhD Candidate University of Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France

Bilkent University, Turkey

Abstract

The funerary steles at Antioch on the Orontes and its surrounding areas from the Antiquity reveal the most convivial aspect of the society. Such an atmosphere of conviviality is also described in ancient writings and brought to light by the excavations of Princeton University in the 1930s . However, it was particularly difficult to propound the contribution of the steles to the conviviality of the society with certitude by means of either their iconographical or epigraphical testimony. For, the steles that represent more vividly such a social aspect were dispersed among Turkey, the United States of America, France, Syria and Lebanon. Moreover, their records were almost not illustrated at all. Therefore, none of the researches carried out throughout the 20th century offered a comparative study between the particular evidence provided by the funerary steles and the extant data. Observing such deficiencies in the preliminary studies, we attempted to constitute a most complete and illustrated corpus of steles and to analyze it as a major component of our doctoral thesis77. We shall present certain outcomes of the researches we conducted to determine how the conviviality is conceived on the steles, the mosaics and urban planning. We will also indicate principal similarities and differences between the steles and mosaics (in particular the representations of banquet which demonstrate most concretely the convivial ambience).

Keywords : Antioch on the Orontes, funerary steles, mosaics, banquet, antiquity Introduction

Antioch is situated in the north-east of the eastern Mediterranean basin, connecting Asia Minor to the Middle East. It lies along the Orontes River at the foot of ‘Silpion’ Mount and above the fertile plain of Amuq. Antioch was the capital of the Seleucid dynasty during the Hellenistic period and the capital of the Roman province of Syria also one of the three largest cities in the eastern world throughout the Roman imperial period.

The funerary steles at Antioch on the Orontes and its surrounding areas dating from the Antiquity, although they result from a provincial manufacture devoid of precision in the details and the inscriptions are engraved on them roughly in the oral use of the language, are of significant value for the light they bring to our knowledge regarding the history of Antioch. The funerary steles manifest notably the convivial aspect of the society as described in ancient writings and revealed during the excavations conducted by Princeton University in the 1930s. However, it was particularly difficult to claim with absolute certitude the contribution of the steles by means of either their iconographical or epigraphical testimony to our knowledge concerning the convivial aspect of the society. Because the steles were scattered 77 The present article is a part of our doctoral thesis entitled ‘Some aspects of the social, cultural and religious Antioch and its environs through the study of funerary steles in Antiquity’ and performed under the scientific direction of the Professors Ms. Bernadette Cabouret Laurioux and Ms. Dominique Kassab Tezgör in both the University Jean Moulin Lyon 3 in France and Bilkent University in Turkey.


383

around the United States of America, France, Turkey, Syria and Lebanon due to the historical background of the Antiochene region, their records were for the most part not illustrated at all.

Therefore, none of the researches performed throughout the 20th century offered a comparative study between the particular evidence provided by the funerary steles and the extant data. Observing such deficiencies in the preliminary studies, we tried to constitute a most complete and illustrated corpus of steles and to elaborate this synthesis as a part of our doctoral thesis.

The present work aims to demonstrate the outcome of the researches we have done to determine how the conviviality is conceived on the steles, the mosaics, the architectural laying out and the urban planning. It also aims to show both the similarities and differences between the steles and the mosaics, in particular as reflected on the representations of banquet, which is most concrete manifestation of the conviviality. I

The conviviality, the quality or state of being social, is exposed in the iconography. On some monuments, only the inscription mentions it, because either the part that preserves the representation has disappeared, or they are only epitaphs.

Before dealing with the representations of banquet on our steles, we refer to the mosaic of Megalopsychia whose borders offer snapshots of daily life and allow to grasp easily this Antiochian sociability and vitality (Lassus, 1972a : 138-139, pl. 56, n° 187 a, b, c, pl. CLXXXVII- CLXXXV). We may notice a traveler who carries his bag which is attached to a stick on his shoulder. A porter carries a rolled up carpet on his back. Some vendors prepare food on a portable tripod table. A man buys something from one of them, maybe a bread ? Another seller has before him, a table where are spread refreshments and some other products difficult to identify before stores. Others play board game that we can not identify maybe chess, dominoes, checkers or more precisely the dice according to D. Levi (1947a : 330, 1947b : LXXIX b, c), perhaps backgammon during their free time in front of a building or a place called περίπατος ‘promenade’, a meeting place of distraction (Cabouret, 1999: 147, fig 18a) whose façade is protected by a roof which gives shade. A mother who carries a burden on her shoulders took her child by the hand and crosses a bridge over the Orontes. A man greets them from the balcony of his house without balustrade, which seems to be on the second floor. We see a dolphin jumping on the Orontes in the background. The servants offer refreshments to their masters who are portrayed in a half-lying position, opening the way for important figures or for a woman on horseback, leading donkeys to another bridge, carry packages and baskets on their head and in their hand. The owner of one of the villas represented on the wooded road leading to Daphne holds the hand of a little boy to whom he seems to be speaking. Another man is praying in front of a building (perhaps the Great Church of Antioch also called Octagon) and people, perhaps pilgrims are waiting near martyrion.

The iconography of this mosaic is even more impressive if we consider the similarity between the bustling city of Antioch of yesteryear, more precisely of the fifth century A.D. according to G. Downey (1963 : fig. 52-25, 48-10, 55-35-36, 57-45, 54-33, 57-46, 49-13-12-14, 48-9, 58-47, 47-6, 59-50, 46-2, 51 -19, 57-43, 59-51, 48-8 , 58-49, 56-40, 50-18, 58-48) and Antakya of today. On this mosaic, we see in the background the great colonnaded street bordered by verandas, buildings with gallery (Cabouret, 1999 : 147, fig 18b, n° 24) and buildings or spaces such as the stadium, the octagonal church, martyrion, private and public baths, bridges over the Orontes enabling residents of Antioch and Daphne circulations of all kinds. We may not only note the sociability among the inhabitans of Antioch yet also the urban planning of the city in the background that allows them to encounter one other. In fact, the ancient teacher of rhetoric Libanios (in Festugière, 1959 : 25-26) for his native city Antioch mentions so proudly how, unlike the residents of other cities, the Antiochians meet one other even under inconvenient weather conditions thanks to its main colonnaded street.


384

The architecture of the excavated residences reveals on the other hand not only the luxurious lifestyle of the rich Antiochians yet also their hospitality. The villa is organized indeed according to the reception of guests and seems to be done in order to impress them78.

Copious banquets are probably the most concrete manifestations of the sociability. Plato (in Erhat and Eyüboğlu, 1958), in his philosophical text entitled ‘Symposium’, offers some valuable insights that elucidate the procedure of banquets whose origins are rooted in a remote past as far as archaic period, if not even farther. They display also very specific customs perpetuated throughout the centuries until the classical period as well as it would be so up to the Hellenistic and Roman imperial period.

Namely, we may note in the text of Plato that the banquet begins early in the evening and ends at the first light of dawn. It is held in honor of the tragic poet Agathon who won the first prize in the dramatic performances, during a festival held in 416, in Athens. It consists of two parts : the first of the meal, that is to say the dinner, during which banqueters eat and not converse much with one other whereas the second part with which we are more particularly concerned in this context, of drinking wine. It is the sacred part in which hymns and paeans are recited with the company of musical instruments in honor of the gods and the contradictory aspects of some exquisite intellectual issues are debated, in this case love. The guests are depicted in a half-lying position on couchs placed in the form of horseshoe, settled there according to the hierchichal levels of their dignity from right to left . The guest of honor is placed at most left, to the right of host. Plato makes indeed Agathon, tragic poet and host of the rich domain, to accomodate Socrates, guest of honor and his own master next to him, to his right. Note that many domestics open the door, welcome the guests, wash their hands before they start to drink, that the players of musical instruments are asked to leave the dinning room while the banqueters are drinking and that some of them suggest a topic for speechs and ensure that they do not astray from the main subject.

Although the banquets go sometimes off the rails and turn into a sheer scandal, they have indeed a religious dimension : the libation covers a magical nature, hand washing is symbolic -a metaphor of pure and clean living notes N. Janowitz (1991)-, wearing wreaths

78 We can cite some examples of which the most striking is the particular positioning of the mosaics in the dining room of the Atrium House : two mosaics of Aphrodite and Adonis, currently preserved in the Art Museum of Princeton University (Elderkin, 1934 : 47-48, fig. 9-11 ; Jones, 1981 : 12, fig. 28) and Judgment of Paris, currently preserved in Louvre Museum, placed towards the entrance way to welcome guests while the three other mosaics are paved in opposite direction, to the back of the room, so as to face the banqueters at the feast, in the later stage of reception (Elderkin, 1934 : 42, fig. 1 ; Becker, Kondoleon, Newman and Wypyski, 2005 : 16-79). These are : the central panel of the mosaic called Bacchus lying in a symposium, discovered in 1932, currently preserved in the Worcester Art Museum, access n° 1933.36, dated to the early second century A.D. (Elderkin, 1934 : 42-45, pl. I, VI, panel B ; Jones, 1981 : 26 ; Kondoleon, 2000 : 68, 170 ; Kondoleon, 2005b : 178-181, n° 1), the left panel of the mosaic called Satyr dancing, also known as follower of Dionysus with panpipes and a grapevine wreath, currently preserved in the Baltimore Museum of Art, the access n° 33.52.2 (Elderkin, 1934 : pl VI , panel A ; Kondoleon, 2000: 172) and the right panel of the mosaic called Dancing maenad, now preserved in the Baltimore Museum of Art, the access n° 33.52.1 (Elderkin, 1934 : pl. VI, panel C ; Kondoleon, 2000 : 170). The excavations in the villa called Calendar, at the sector 15-R, in Antioch reveal a similar arrangement : ‘the guests reclining on the couches at the end of the large dining room had an array of varied and colorful figures in mosaic on the floor before them, and a little farther in the distance they could see a colonnade with the pool beyond it’ (Field Report, 1935 : 7). We observe the same planning in the areas quite far from Antioch, in the arrangement of mosaics at the entrance of the villa called Constantinian in Daphne (Field Report, 1935 : 27-28, fig. 41) and in the arrangement of mosaic Amerimnia in the funerary complex on the eastern slope of ‘Staurin’ Mount, of the American inv. n° b320-M138, currently preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Antakya, of the Turkish inv. n ° 968, dated to fourth century A.D. (Excavation Diary, 1938 : 197-205, pages numbered twice as 1-9 ; Campbell and Stillwell, 1941 : 181, 118, pl 54). In the residence called House of Drinking Contest at the sector 18-K, in Seleucia, the mosaic in the reception room which gives its name to the residence, is positioned so as to to face the banqueters during the feast, as the mosaic called Eros and Psyche in the corridor.


385

indicates an initiation, even the eternal happiness of the dead is conceived as a banquet (Ksenophon in Örs, 1962).

In our corpus, the vast majority of funerary steles offer, indeed, the representations of a banquet. Of these, the bed may have the edges in the form of lyre or zoomorphic, in other words, imitating the bovid horns. It might also either have the edges of angular profile or do not have the edges at all. The other examples are too fragmentary or though complete, offer few clues to determine it with certainty. One of the edges, zoomorphic or angular, may be slightly higher either at the bedhead or at the foot of the bed. The edges of the bed are often pressed against the either side of the steles and force the frame of the representation. Only few examples have space on both sides at right or left. We have designated the bed without edges as a couch. Their presence is at times suggested by a simple mattres. The couch is often covered by a drapery with the semi-circular folds. There are also many examples where the couch is devoid of drapery.

The bedhead is always placed to the right except for a few examples. On the couchs, the bedhead is often indicated by a high, big, flat, small or triangular pillow. This one may be either pressed against the side of the stele as well as put under the elbow of the figure. On beds with zoomorphic edges imitating the bovid horns, the bedhead is suggested by folded mattresses. In more rare examples the mattress may be either folded at the bedhead or at the foot of the bed. The craftsman wish to represent the mattress thick and padded, yet it often remains flat and in very low relief.

It is important to note that the composition of representations lack perspective. This enables us to see two legs of the bed. A single example shows the third leg in the middle of the bed. The legs can be conical, cylindrical, molded, without molding or provided with fulcrum. Some couchs are carved precisely in the lower part, with the superimposed crossbars which connect the cylindrical legs. The legs of the bed may rise above a full, rectangular and fairly high base. The base can also be roughly cylindrical-shaped and low, in the concave profile or even triangular. The furniture in the lower part of the relief frame is often suggested by a slight refitting of the background instead of being in relief on a series of representations of banquet. It is there a common phenomenon which may reveal a concern of economy. On the representations of banquet, we often observe the presence of a table. The rest, being too fragmentary or severely damaged, do not allow us to confirm its existence with certainty. The table is always placed in the foreground, often on the right, next to the bedhead. In some instances it is situated in the center. It is generally quite low, at the level of the bed frame and mattress.

There are two types of table in our corpus : the guéridon, type which constitutes the majority and the tripod table. Whether it is for the guéridon or tripod table, the plate may be represented according to both horizontal and vertical plan though most of the plates are vertical. The plate may be in the mid-ovoid shape, oval, round, oblong or ellipsoidal. We can not clearly distinguish the shape of certain plates, either because the full frontal plan does not allow it or for the reason that they are damaged.

The leg of the guéridon may be both straight and conical though most of the guéridons have conical legs. Those of the tripod table may be zoomorphic and imitate feline paws in the most summary manner, turned inward or outward. In a single example, the tripod table is characterized by two lower legs, turned outward and connected by a crossbar above to the central straight leg. In two other examples, the two outer legs set back widen downward with a concave line while the central leg remains straight. At times, the lack of precision in details or the wear do not allow to recognize the details of the table legs. We do not keep any example with two legs on record.

The table may be both used for serving foods and be empty though most of the tables are served. Lack of precision can be seen also in the motifs of foods that are often suggested by simple incisions. Among the foods, we can clearly distinguish only ring-shaped pastries


386

and some dishware elements such as phials, situlas, krater with volute-shape handles and chalice. These objects may be either placed on the table or carried in the hand of the figures. Despite the damage suffered by one of the examples, the content seems to be the same on two funerary slabs except for the fact that the place of ring-shaped small pastries and that of the phial are reversed. Even though this does not exclude a metonymic interpretation, the representations of banquet does indeed show almost always light meal or only refreshments rather than a hearty meal. Certain representations of banquet did not even have a table. The figures are simply represented in a fairly summary manner holding a phial in the hand.

We note, on the other hand, the presence of a garland of leaves or both thin and thick wheat ears, which hangs in one or two festoons in the background ; it is arranged at the top of the field of certain representations of banquet. The festoons may be adorned with bands at the attachment points. Two great bovid horns may adorn them at the central attachment point and one other may decorate them at each corner. Amid festoons may hang two well spaced out flowers and two bunches of grapes.

A curtain is visible on a significant number of steles. The entire bottom of the field relief of the steles seem to be occupied by this drapery that cross through the small, horizontal, semi-circular and irregular folds, it is stretched between two cylindrical torchs fixed to the ground, in the background, decorated with moldings irregularly spaced out framing symmetrically the relief. On a small number of steles, the torchs are placed to the left, so that the drapery occupies only the left part of the background. Sometimes a simple line indicated hastily by an incision at the top or bottom is enough to suggest the presence of the drapery.

The scenes of banquets on the mosaics seem to compensate for the lack of details, colors and in particular perspective on the representations of banquet on the steles79. On a certain number of steles, we see one or more half-lying figures on a bed at the head or foot of which are seated one or two other figures. At times, one or two servants are placed at their disposal. On the mosaic of Mnemosyne, we note also two half-lying women, leaning on their right elbows. A woman sitting on the left, at the foot of the bed, on a low stool provided with cushion, holds a roll of paper. To the right, a servant stretches out to these half-lying women, in the right hand, a bowl, perhaps so that they may wash their hands before the meal. She carries a jug in the other hand. To the left, are placed two standing women, each one carrying a canteen placed on the left shoulder.

The tunic of the figures are tightened up under the chest. The hang is quite consistent with the representations of steles. However the graceful pleats of their dress and fineness of the cloth are obviously much better rendered on the mosaic. The fallout of the himation from the left shoulder of the half-lying woman to the right, the knot of cloth which comes back from the other side and wraps around the left forearm of the woman on the left side, their representation up to the waist, one hiding the other, are not as schematic as they are on the steles. The deformation of the arm leaning on the elbow, which is often abnormally short on the steles, is represented artistically on the mosaic.

79 Aion and Chronoi : mosaic discovered in the villa called Aion, in 1939, left in situ and covered again due to the lack of time to remove it, this is why it is not inventoried (Campbell and Stillwell, 1941 : 176-177, n° 111, pl. 51 ; Levi, 1944 : 270). Menander : mosaic discovered in the small room 11, of the villa called House of Menander, of the American inv. n° c330-M172, currently preserved in the Marquand Library of Princeton University (Campbell and Stillwell, 1941 : 185-186, n° 131, pl. 63 ; Downey, 1963 : fig. 25 ; Jones, 1981: 3-4). Agros and Opora : mosaic panel discovered in Room 8 of the villa called Boat of Psyche at the sector 23/24-M/N sector in the area 200-217, in Daphne, in June 1934, of the American inv. n° 3756-M49, currently preserved at the Baltimore Museum of Art (Catalogue of Mosaics, 1938 : 185-186, n° 53, panel A, pl. 40 ; Jones, 1981 : 16). The last name Oinos corresponds to the servant. In addition, the mosaics of Bacchus lying in a symposium Mnemosyne and Drinking contest.


387

C. Kondoleon (2000 : 121-122 ) interprets the seated woman which opens the roll that she holds in her hands as deceased person. This image with the set of contrast of the colors allows better to identify this type of the hang which is often presented on our steles, this is a himation placed as a shawl on the shoulders and which leaves partially visible the bust and the right arm ; it entirely envelops the lower part of the body forming a rather thick roll of cloths. Unlike the representation provided by the steles, the right foot shod with sandals is detailed. The left hand of the woman in the middle rests on the head of the deceased, perhaps in order to comfort her.

The secondary figures, such as the domestics, are systematically neglected on the steles. On the mosaic of Mnemosyne, it is surprising to observe the treatment of the maid to the right, in the minutest details, with his name inscribed at the top of the panel. Her long tunic which does down to his heels, given a wide boat neckline, with droopy armholes and which tightens up under the chest a fine, thin, high belt, is clearly indicated. According to the chronicle of excavations (Excavation Diary, 1935 : 245), the two standing women to the left may be musicians. However, the absence of the himation, the canteen hanging down from their left shoulder and their availability to serve the refreshments suggest that they are rather servants.

The scene is animated, with the chiaroscuro colors, by many details, such as the expression rather grave of the face of the women of good condition, their hair wore in a bun on top of the head and puffed out on either side of the front, the earrings, the table served with the roast chicken, according to the chronicle of excavations80, the crossbar connecting the slightly concave legs of the table, the jar placed in the foreground, the loutrophoros and the large curtain hung on the background.

C. Kondoleon (2000 : 121-122) states that the curtain hanging in the background, that recalls the aforesaid curtain visible on a significant number of steles, the parapetasma, is similar to what we see on the Roman sarcophagi showing married couples. It is certain that the curtain is not a background decor and is interpreted differently by many authors who attribute to it a religious sense (Lameere, 1939 : 44). According I. Lavin (2005 : 172), the reference is purely symbolic. The portraits of the deceased on the ancient funerary monuments are placed against a parapetasma that symbolizes their apotheosis, that is to say, their elevation to divine status.

Mnemosyne mosaic comes indeed from a funerary complex. It was discovered in a burial chamber dated from fourth century A.D81. C. Kondoleon also recalls that the funerary banquet is a very common motif in the decoration of the tombs and the mosaic offers a combination of reality and the ideal, for, according to the author, the banquets constitutes the essential part of the Roman funerary rituals ; the feast also symbolizes eternal generosity of the afterlife.

We often observe that the names of the figures are inscribed above their heads on the mosaics. Based on photographs in situ of the mosaic, before it is removed, only the names of the aristocratic and domestic women (both placed to the right) were legible. These are respectively Μνημοσύνη whose meaning is ‘memory’ and Αἰωχία which would be a dialectal form, according to the phonetic usage, Εὐωχία meaning ‘banquet’ notes C. Kondoleon . The author also considers that Mnemosyne was probably used to refer to a group of women who belonged to a funerary association that would be gathered at this particular place for regular funerary banquets (Kondoleon, 2000: 121-122).

However, we clearly see on the mosaic that the name Mnemosyne is not placed in the center, yet just above the head of the woman. It seems therefore to designate her rather than to 80 ‘In front of the seated figures is a tripod supporting a tray with a roasted fowl on it’ (Excavation Diary, 1935 : 245). 81 It is not uncommon to find mosaics in funerary complex also in the vicinity of Antioch including mosaic Amerimnia discovered on the eastern slope of ‘Staurin’ Mount.


388

refer to the whole composition, as well as the second name Αἰωχία, aligned to the right, designates the servant who is at the disposal of his mistress. We noted that the name of the domestic seem to provide a rapprochement with the notion αἰών, ‘eternity’. On an inscription of our corpus reads our corpus, we read τὸν αἰῶνα which means ‘eternity’ in reference to the eternity of the memory of the deceased in the funeral context and especially by the direct address from third party to the deceased person.

On another mosaic called Agros and Opora, which also present a banquet scene yet not funerary one, as we see on steles, a half-lying man on a bed at the foot of which is seated a woman, to the right with a servant who stands at the entire disposal of his master.

The man leans the weight of his body on a pillow raised, at the bedhead. The fallout of his himation from his left shoulder is lined with a thick fold that envelops the forearm and constitutes, above the wrist, a drop of cloth in zigzag pattern. The other side wraps around the body, form a roll of thick cloth on the hips and crosses the fallout from the left shoulder. These features enable better to identify a type so known on our steles. The left hand holding a phial is represented with skill unlike those of our steles which rather evoke a mitten, a clamp or even a ladle with a long handle, because of the obvious disproportion. The himation leaves visible here, similarly, the right side of the torso where we note, by contrast, the absence of chiton that wear always all of the banqueters of our steles. The torso is on the other hand detailed, thanks to the chiaroscuro of colors, and are drawn pectoral and abdominal muscles. The man embraces the woman with his right arm.

The woman sitting at the foot of the bed reminds those of our steles save for few details. The himation slips off the left shoulder and wrap itself around the forearm forming a fine zigzag pattern that stretches out downward. The himation leaves the breast entirely visible envelopping the lower part of the body while the upper part of the women is never represented nude in this way on the steles. The feet are placed on a footrest whose shape is familiar to us. We do not see here in the illustration of the lower body of the figure subtracted from view, the clumsiness often encountered on the banquet representations of our steles. The servant does not deviate from the type which is often placed next to the male master and simply wears a short tunic. However, contrary to what we see on our steles, he is apparently nude and his paunchy belly is well detailed.

The scene is animated with many details that are important for us such as the hair of women and that of men crowned with a wreath of various foliage, the necklace of flowers around their neck, an armful of fruits that the woman holds in her lap, the furniture, the utensils and the curtain stretched out in the background. On the mosaic, the tripod table with zoomorphic legs imitating feline paws in the foreground is put into perspective with the clearly indicated phial and situla, contrary to what we see on the steles. The plate is often shown in a vertical plane on the steles, so that we can see if it is served or not. In cases when it is served, we may identify foods and utensils that are arranged, without precisely distinguishing the details however.

The curtain hangs in the background and two festoons animate it at the central attachment point, where the folds constitute two drops in a fine zigzag pattern from. This curtain differs from the one we see on our steles and on the mosaic called Mnemosyne. It is nonetheless possible that this curtain may also symbolize the celestial immortality of the souls yet it remains a hypothesis. The bed is much more detailed than those represented on our steles, essentially by the color contrast, the padded mattress, the drapery that covers it loosely and the cylindrical legs provided with fulcrum. Yet it does not seem to have any edges imitating bovid horns as on most of our steles.

The mosaic of Menander in documentation of the Archives comes from one of the greatest villas in Daphne. Although it respresents a banquet scene, the context is not funerary. However, it is valuable for the light it brings to our understanding of the iconography of funerary banquet. We see a man and a woman half lying side by side on a bed, shown, similar


389

and rather awkward manner, up to the waist, with a woman next to them, to the left. The artist probably wanted to represent this woman seated, yet she seems so inconveniently placed at the end of the bed that she gives rather the impression of standing upright. The man represented slightly in three-quarter plane, leaning to the right, turns his head sharply to the woman, displaying his great interest towards her. He embraces her with his right arm, yet we do not see his hand. The himation which slips off the left shoulder forms a pile of cloth rolled up at the bend of the arm and leaves the torso naked, the pectoral and abdominal muscles clearly indicated by the contrasting colors.

We do not find neither this strength in the expression of the face nor the suggested exchange between the figures on the funerary steles where they rather seem in an absolute immobility. The quality of their execution aside, the figures on the steles often appear in a profound affliction that suffice to indicate in a quite simple or even caricatural manner, the head resting heavily on the hand brought under the chin, the thick drooping upper eyelids, the mouth with lips arched downward, conferring to the figures a sulky expression, the close-set or frowned eyebrows.

The woman placed in the middle of the mosaic wears a chiton whose given a deep boat neckline is attached to her shoulders. This constitutes a contrast with the long-sleeved chiton of the woman to the left who also wears a himation over the left shoulder. A mask in the left hand, a stick in the right one, she seems to have a message to convey. We note easily an object at her feet, perhaps a capsa with cover, object provided with a handle. Above the ‘capsa’ stands another mask and an object difficult to distinguish, probably a volumen. Details such as the couch covered with a padded mattress and a drapery drawing irregular and semi-circular folds as well as the cleared, oval and zoomorphic tripod table offer a living drawing of this representation of banquet on the steles. None of the figures of our steles is, on the other hand, wearing wreaths, in the same way as the half-lying man and woman shown in this mosaic.

Through the names mentioned above their head, the figures have been identified and analyzed in previous studies, allowing to better interpret the scene (Downey, 1963 : 207-208). The man apparently represents Menander, author of plays still much studied and quoted, of the fourth century B.C. and the woman to the left is his mistress. The second woman is the allegory of the comedy. The masks are constantly present on the borders of the mosaics. Yet two tragic masks contrast here with the allegory of the comedy. The theatrical themes are evidently recurrent on the mosaics of Antioch82.

The great domestic complex of Menander is situated not far from the famous ‘theater’ of Daphne83. Moreover, all the scenes in reference to the tragedies of Euripides and the masks intertwined with the grape leaves that often decorate the mosaics, denote above all a most refined taste of the owners of these domestic areas for the theater and the literary works such as the storytelling in the Iliad (Weitzmann, 1941 : 233-251 ; Downey, 1963 : 207).

The mosaic of Aion and Chronoi retain our attention by the presence of several half-lying figures side by side, leaning on their elbow to the right, in the same position as on some steles of our corpus.

In the execution of certain representations of multiple banquets in our corpus, the craftsman seems to have wished to represent figures as half-lying and the lower part of the 82 Mosaic of Bellerophon and Stheneboea shows Bellerophon, the hero and the son of the king of Corinth who, having committed a crime, went to Tiryns to the king Proetus whose wife Stheneboea falls in love with him. We see him on the mosaic rejecting her love. Mosaic of Hippolytus, Phaedra and servant shows Hippolytus dedicated to Artemis, rejecting the love of Phaedra, his stepmother and wife of Theseus, his father. Mosaic of Paris, Helen and Aphrodite shows love of Paris for Helen which, according to the legend, the origin of the Trojan War. 83 According to the grid mapping system of the excavations of the 1930s, the complex of Menander would even not be at a distance of 1.5 miles away from the ‘theater’ of Daphne.


390

body of the last person to the left in his entirety, yet, after all, the figures are shown up to their waist and the lower part of the body of the last person to the left is shown only partially, which leads us to assume that the craftsman does not have enough available space to do so or he intended to create an illusion of perspective. It is, however, very curious to find an iconography close to our steles on this mosaic.

In addition, on the mosaic, the couch of banqueters corresponds to those of our steles. We systematically find the representations of multiple banquets with several figures. The drapery which covers it, is crossed through similarly with semi-circular folds, except that they form three festoons while those on our steles only one. The furniture placed in the foreground, next to the bed, which rather reminds the guéridons with conical legs of our corpus, is interpreted as a incense-burner (Levi , 1944 : 272-273).

Besides these mosaics, we know two other representations of banquet scenes where drinking contest takes place between Dionysus and Heracles. These mosaics were discovered in the dining rooms of two sumptuous villas in Antioch and Seleucia. They are positioned so as to be seen by the guests half-lying on the couchs.

Both mosaics are similar, but differ in some details. With a majestic appearance, Dionysus is in half-lying position and rests on a large cushion placed under his left elbow ; he takes up much more space than the other figures. His himation leaves his torso half-naked, draping only the lower part of the body, which gives him an anatomy both athletic and childish. His radiant appearance is given, on the mosaic of Seleucia, with its head surrounded by a halo of light. It contrasts with Heracles who looks mature, dark and who is clumsily inserted into the composition. Dionysus raises his cup in the air, no doubt to show that he probably ended up drinking while his rival is still drinking, his goblet still brought to his mouth.

On the mosaic of Antioch, we see the old satyr half-naked announce the victory of Dionysus, raising his left arm in the air. A controversial figure (Foucher, 2000 : 203-204), which reminds us of Eros, and the maenad celebrate the superiority of Dionysos over Heracles, the first applauding, the second playing the aulos. We also note the sceptre resting on the left shoulder of Dionysus. On the mosaic of Seleucia, the old satyr and the figure evoking Eros are not represented, the kylix becomes drinking horn and the aulos, the tambourine.

There are, on the other hand, many mosaics where the figures, without attending a banquet in the proper sense of the term, are half-lying in the attitude of banqueters84. The 84 Ninus and Semiramis : mosaic discovered in the room 1 of the complex called House of the Man of Letters, at the sector 26-O/P, in Daphne, currently preserved in the Marquand Library of Princeton University (Campbell and Stillwell, 1941 : 203-204 , n° 100 , panel B , p 78), dated from the year 200 (Jones, 1981 : 3). Erotes in a symposium : outer rectangular panel framing trapezoidal panels of the octagonal pool, discovered in the Roman villa called Constantinian, of the American inv. n° 5524-M93, currently in the Louvre Museum (Catalogue of Mosaics, 1938 : 198, n° 87, panel H, pl. 63). Ladon and Psalis : mosaic pavement with the allegory of the river Ladon and the source Psalis, discovered in room 13 of the villa called House of Menander, of the American inv. n° c386-M178, currently preserved in the great hall, at the Archaeological Museum of Antakya, of the inv. n° 1015, dated between 250 and 275 (Campbell and Stillwell, 1941 : 188, 135, panel C , pl. 64). Reclining Heracles : the one in the middle one of the three ellipsoidal mosaic pavements discovered in the entrance room 1 of the Roman villa called Constantinian, in the front of the octagonal pool, of the American inv. n° 5524-M93, currently preserved in the Art Museum Princeton University (Catalogue of Mosaics, 1938 : 200, 87, Aa panel, pl. 68 pl ). ‘The pavement was a large rectangular one with two separate decorative systems although the pavement itself was continuous with no structural divisions (Fig. 41). One part served as the floor at the entrance; and the other, forming the pavement of the main part of the room, had picture panels grouped around an octogonal pool[...] The part of the pavement toward the entrance was badly damaged since it was only a few inches beneath the surface of the ground. Just within the portal was a row of three figure panels in ellipsoid frames separated, the one from the other, by a rectangular panel containing one half of a perspective fret. The central figure was that of a reclining Heracles (Fig. 55) ; to the right was dancing bacchant’ (Field Report, 1935 : 27-28, fig. 41, 55 in situ).


391

mosaic called Buffet Supper allows us to better recognize the foods likely to be presented at the table especially ring-shaped pastries85. Conclusion

To conclude, it would be appropriate to emphasize various meanings of the concept of banquet. According to F. Cumont (1906 : 74 -79), it was long thought that we may recognize in these copious meals, in these Asian bacchanalia, the fervent followers and mystics of Eastern cults, eating well, becoming inebriated, devoting themselves to a state of ecstasy, to binge drinking and feasting, giving themselves up to an absolute debauchery and being practising any earthly, material and Epicurean philosophy. It would be a simple exhortation to enjoy the life and the present, for the rest is uncertain and an invitation to eat well, drink well, to entertain well, because life is ephemeral. However, the faith in immortality and a future judgment were opposing this. It should rather have been recognized in these banquets a kind of celebration among the initiated members, a preparation for the eternal feast of the blessed ones to which God was calling his elected ones. This feast was the very symbol of happiness in the afterlife reserved for the righteous, pious souls. We should concede that what were served in the dishes were foods of spiritual life.

As it is shown by P. Schmitt Pantel (1985), although the banquet, as a convivial activity came to correspond to various functions of the society from the archaic to the Constantinian period, it preserved the same gestures throughout the centuries. We will limit ourselves to recall merely this singular ambiguity that the author does discern : although connoted as a privilege of the aristocracy, the banquet is indeed an institutional, united and

Tryphe : mosaic pavement with the allegory of the opulence discovered in the room 6 of the Roman villa known as the Calendar, of the American inv. n° 4779-M66, currently preserved in the great hall, at the Archaeological Museum of Antakya, of the Turkish inv. n° 862, dated from the third century A.D. (Catalogue of Mosaics, 1938, 193, n° 74, pl. 54). Bios : mosaic pavement with the allegory of the life, discovered in room 6 of the Roman villa called Calendar, bearing the same American and Turkish inv. n°s 4779-M66 and 862 respectively as the mosaic of Tryphe preserved in the great hall of the Archaeological Museum of Antakya, dated from the third century AD (Field Report, 1935 : 10, fig. 16 in situ, fig. 18 ; Excavation Diary, 1935 : 242-245 ; Catalogue of Mosaics, 1938 : 193, n° 74, pl. 54). Ocean and Tethys : mosaic discovered in room 1 of the villa known as the Calendar, of the American inv. n° 4776-M63, currently preserved in the Antakya Archaeological Museum, of the the Turkish inv. n° 850, dated second century A.D. (Catalogue of Mosaics, 1938 : 191, n° 71, panel B, pl. 51) . Nereids, Hippocamps and Triton : mosaic pavement discovered in the colonnaded room 4 of the villa known as the House of the Triumph of Dionysus, of the American inv. n° 5438-M90, currently preserved in the Baltimore Museum of Art (Catalogue of Mosaics, 1941 : 196-197, n° 86, pl. 61 ; Jones, 1981 : 17). Nereids and Tritons : mosaic discovered in the Bath E. The border of the mosaic Megalopsychia (Downey, 1963 : fig. 48-9, 58-47) . 85 Buffet supper : mosaic discovered in 1937, in the great complex called the House of Buffet Supper, currently preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Antakya. ‘22 May [1937]. [...] rectangulaire, avec un canthare des oiseaux [Fig. 2] et des enfants, sur un fond jaune, du type bien connu ; l’autre [panneau de mosaïque] par contre est très nouveau : il a la forme en demi-cercle outrepassé de ces énigmatiques - tables d’agapes -dont nous n’avons naguère trouvé, dans le voisinage, un si bel exemplaire. Le rapprochement s’impose d’autant plus qu’il s’agit ici d’une table de salle à manger tout autour du fer à cheval se trouvent en effet disposés les différents plats d’un magnifique repas : on trouve, de droite à gauche, un plat rond sur lequel sont posés [Fig. 2] deux œufs à la coque, dans leur coquetier, flanqués longues cuillières, deux artichauts, deux pieds de porc ; puis, c’est un poisson, servi dans un plat carré, évidemment en argenterie, ensuite on trouve un jambon, une grande coupe de vin, un canard rôti, puis un poulet, et au delà d’une lacune, un énorme gâteau. [...] [manuscrit illisible], et de petits pains ronds, bien levés, sont placés çà et là. Tous ces motifs sont traités très minutieusement, en teintes brillantes, avec emploi de smaltes de verre qui se détachent sur un fond sombre. [...] Le style de ce panneau central, comme celui du panneau des oiseaux et de la bordure invite à dater ce pavement du IIIe siècle et plutôt sans doute de la seconde moitié’ (Excavation Diary, 1937 : 54). ‘Mosaic showing buffet supper ready to be served on a semicircular table, with a panel depicting Ganymede giving water to the eagle of Zeus. Found in a house of late second or early third century at Daphne. The courses of the meal are laid out in order, beginning at the spectator’s right’ (Downey, 1963 : 37-40).


392

egalitarian practice of the city. Its actors, without knowing much what it truly means have perpetuated it ‘whatever are the historical conditions’ and though it has become an expression of modes ‘far remote from those of its origins’.

As for J. Scheid (1985), while drawing our attention to the sacrifice that preceded the banquet (that we can suggest its practice with a metonymic interpretation of bovid horns and some garlands on certain steles of our corpus) he demonstrates its evolution in Rome if not its decadence.

We may lastly concede through all these evidence, whether they appear on the steles, mosaics, urban planing or architectural laying out, that the conviviality is an essential aspect of the ancient Antiochene society. All the representations of banquets both on the steles and mosaics attest their popularity in Antioch yet the mosaics offer dynamic and colorful scenes rich in details. Its reflection on the steles translates an appurtenance if not of the whole society, at least of a group to an ancient tradition first and foremost spiritual. References: Libanius, Oration praise of Antioch, translated and annotated by Downey, G. « Libanius’ Oration in Praise of Antioch (Oration XI) », Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 103, n° 5, p. 652-686, 1959. Libanius, Antiochikos, Or. XI 196-270, translated and annotated by Festugière, A. J. Antioche païenne et chrétienne, Paris : de Boccard, 1959. Platon, Œuvres Complètes vol. III, Banquet, Phédon, Phèdre, Théétète, Parménide, translated and annotated by Chambry E., Paris : Librairie Garnier Frères, 1946. Archives of Department of Art and Archeology. Field Reports, Excavation Diaries, Field Books. Princeton : Princeton University (Unpublished documents), 1932-1939. Becker, L., Kondoleon, C., Newman, R. and Wypyski, M. T. « The Atrium House Triclinium », in Becker, L. and Kondoleon, C. éd. The arts of Antioch, Art Historical and Scientific Approaches to Roman Mosaics and a Catalogue of the Worcester Art Museum. Princeton : Princeton University, p. 16-79, 2005. Cabouret, B. (1999) ‘Sous les portiques d’Antioche’, Syria 76 : 127-150. Cumont, F. « Les mystères de Sabazius et le judaïsme » in Comptes-rendus des séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 1, p. 63-79, 1906. Downey, G. Ancient Antioch. Princeton : Princeton University, 1963. Eflâtun, Şölen, Sevgi üstüne, translated and annotated by Erhat A. and Eyüpoğlu S., İstanbul : Elderkin G. W. « The Figure Mosaics » in Elderkin, G. W. éd. Antioch on-the-Orontes I, The excavations of 1932. Princeton : Princeton University, p. 42-48, 1934. Janowitz N. « The Rhetoric of Translation: Three Early Perspectives on Translating Torah », Harvard Theological Review, 84, p. 129-140, 1991. Jones, F. F. « Antioch Mosaics in Princeton », Record of the Art Museum, Princeton Kondoleon, C. Antioch, the Lost Ancient City. Princeton : Princeton University, 2000. Kondoleon, C. « Mosaic of Drinking Contest between Herakles and Dionysos » in Becker, L. et Kondoleon, C. éd., The arts of Antioch, Art Historical and Scientific Approaches to Roman Mosaics and a Catalogue of the Worcester Art Museum., Princeton : Princeton University, p. Ksenephon, Şölen ve Sokrates’in savunması, translated and annotated by Örs H., İstanbul : Lassus, J. « La Bordure topographique de la mosaïque de Yakto », in Stillwell, R. éd. Antioch on-the-Orontes V, Les Portiques d’Antioche. Princeton : Princeton University, 1972. Levi, D. Antioch mosaic pavements I, Princeton, Princeton University, 1947a. Levi, D. Antioch mosaic pavements II, Princeton, Princeton University, 1947b. Scheid J. « Sacrifice et banquet à Rome », MEFRA 97, p. 193-206, 1985. Schmitt Pantel P. « Banquet et cité grecque », MEFRA 97, p. 135-158, 1985.


393

BLASPHEMY OF DOWRY IN INDIA AND AN INSURGENCE OF AN ARTIST: NEELIMA SHEIKH AGAINST THE SYSTEM

Zeba Hasan, Dr., Associate Prof. Department of Fine Arts, Aligarh Muslim University, India

Abstract The tradition of presenting gifts to the daughter by parents on the occasion of marriage

initiated during Vedic societywith a feeling of love and affection and honoring the groom, this tradition later transformed into dowry system and greed and encouraged greed and malfunctioning, hence, child marriage, sati-Jauhar and restriction to girl’s education occurred in the society. During Modern period, when India became independent, the great reformers like Mahatma Gandhi, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar ChanderVidyaSagar etc. put their tireless efforts to remove these social evils. An enactment called ‘Leti-Deti Act’was passed in 1939followed by the dowry prohibition Act 1961. In spite of all endeavors the tradition of dowry is still in vogue and at times the lust of dowry increased to such heights that in-laws of the bride ends up with offences of burning, strangulating or murdering the bride. The present research paper encompasses the origin and evolution of dowry system in India, development of this evil, malpractices of exploitations, actions taken against the immoral and criminal practice, its repercussions on contemporary society and further concludes with an insurgence of an artist ‘Neelima Sheikh’ against the sinful crime through a series of her creative art-works in which agonizing ache can be sensed. Neelima says that this is her way to pay tribute to Champa or the deceased, which is also a powerful media for influencing people in eradicating such type of wicked practices from Indian society.

Keywords: Exploitation, Social evil, Bride-burning, Dowry-Death Introduction

The term dowry is derived from the ancient Hindu custom of “Kanyadan” which is the essential ritual of Hindu marital ties. ‘Kanya’ means daughter and ‘dena’ means gift.1An approved marriage among Hindus has always considered Kanyadan, be it marriage in any form. According to the Dharmashastras the meritorious act of Kanyadan is not complete till the bridegroom was given a dakshina.2 The word “Hunda” appears to be derived from “Handa” which means pot. This could be due to the practice of offering dowry in pot.3According to the tradition the father of the bride presents his daughter jewelry and clothes at the time of her marriage. “Varadakshina” is given to the groom. “Vara” means groom and “Dakshina” means gifts that are paid in the form of dowry cash, property and material to the groom. Varadakshina was a present to the bridegroom and obviously it constituted his property. It need not be doubted that then Varadakshina was given out of love and affection and with feeling of honoring the groom.4 Some other terms such as Stridhan, Yautuka and Dahej which describe the same concept. “Stridhan” is particularly related with the gifts, jewelry, clothes etc. given to the bride at the time of her marriage, usually from her relatives or friends. Dharamashastras clearly indicate that the bride had complete rights over the Streedhan – even to dispose them in the case of her husband’s death and yet the form Streedhan that would concretize in course of time was a serious aberration. A note of course needs to be emphasized here is that dowry and Streedhan need to be clearly dissimilar and the distinguishing feature was that the core of Streedhan was voluntarily given to the bride but


394

dowry in its elementary form is necessarily an extraction and compulsory ritual.5 Accordingly Yautuka system, it was considered honorable for the bride’s father to offer dresses, vehicles, ornaments etc. to the bridegroom.6

In the pre-vedic period, the dowry system was probably unknown.7 In Vedic era, women had sufficient freedom. In this present era, she possessed equal rights and status with men. It is known as the golden age of women, their social position and status was at the apex and they enjoyed considerable freedom and privilege in the sphere of family, religion and public life.8 Though women had experienced equal rights and freedom during Vedic era, yet dowry system existed there. The practice was reasonably well entrenched during the Vedic times as indicated in various hymns. Just as Vedic brides went to their new homes in chariots or animal drawn carts – carrying along in a trunk their prized possessions–conspicuously displayed alongside the bride.9 Aitareya Brahamana projected the thought regarding status of contemporary women that ‘a daughter is a source of misery and son alone can be the savior of the family and Atharva Veda also deplored the birth of the daughter. It was so because, a son would support his parents in old age and would live with but this was not to happen with girl, for whom substantial dowry has to be given on occasion of her marriage who had to be maintained in case of her husband’s poverty or death and in the event of being unmarried had to be provided ancestral property’.10 It is also mentioned that such kind of scenes were very common those days.

After the Vedic period, during and after the period of ‘Manu Smriti’ status of woman is narrated in a subordinate position to man.11 During Smriti period women were exploited in all walks of life. It was termed as Dark Age for women’s progress. Manu stipulated that, “A women must be dependent upon her father in childhood, her husband in youth and upon her son in old age.” 12 Meaning she should never be left free in life. During this period many crimes such as dowry, child marriage, sati etc. were developed and women had to suffer and became the victim. However during the epic age contradictory statements speak out about disapproval of contemporary society for dowry system as mentioned in the Mahabharata, “a person who sells his son for money and are who takes bride – price for earning a living are both great thieves and go to hell.”13 The dowry system, though a social evil, was not initially thought bad. It was considered honorable for the bride’s father to offer dresses, vehicles, ornament’s etc. to the bridegroom, all of which was called ‘Yautuka’. The bridegroom’s father and close relations were also given gifts. All this was done voluntarily and it was never a precondition to marriage.14 With the unconditional tradition of offering ‘Yautuka’ to bridegroom Chandra Mauli Mani throws lights on some cases where dowry was returned back to the bride’s father. The case of Sukanya mentioned in ‘The evolution of ideals of womanhood in Indian Society’ is significant in connection of the above. It simultaneously high lights that the tradition of dowry was not compulsorily imposed on the society during ancient times. The Ramayana and Mahabharata are replete with examples of Yautuka amongst the high-ups. Even ordinary people are seen to be taking pride in pleasing the bride and groom with gifts.15Ghosh mentions that “Bimbisara had married the daughter of the Koshala King, Mahakoshala, who had given a village of Kashi to him in dowry.”16 But the custom of yautuka which was started to satisfy the ego of elite class of society became a cancer for society in later years. There is no doubt that disregard of ideals of child marriage lay at the root. By and by interest in shastric studies and brahamacharya waned resulting in decrease in the marriageable age of the brides and bridegroom. Further with the prohibition of Vedic studies and brahmachary ashrama for the girl’s tendency of marrying them off at an early age gained ground. Resultantly Smritis started stressing that if the father did not marry off the girl before she started her menses, he invited the sin. This also resulted in fathers of girls tempting eligible boys with the lure of good dowry. Many fathers succumbed to the temptation and the boys themselves were too small to decide for themselves. The outcome was marriage between very


395

young boys and girls. In the course of time, the fathers of grooms stooped down to the level of settling a dowry in the shape of money, horses and elephants etc. Thus the curse of dowry replaced the voluntary offering of Yautuka.17 Medieval India was not observed as women’s age. It is considered as the ‘Dark age’. When Muslims conquerors invaded India a new culture was brought with them. Mughals kept women in purdah which later became more prevalent amongst all kinds of society. Freedom was curbed and too much restriction on women caused insecurity amongst Indian women. Such socio-political circumstance influenced indigenous psychology and resulted into various apprehensions. Girls became burden and needed extra care, whereas a boy child would not need such extra care, instead would be helpful as an earning hand. Thus a vicious phenomenon was introduced in which women was at the receiving end. All this gave rise to new evils such as Child Marriage, Sati-Jauhar and restriction to girl’s education.18

Accordingly Madan C. Paul it is said that during medieval period the ruling class of Kshatriyas and other dominant castes/classes used to transact lots of property, both movable and immovable, along with their daughters at marriage to elevate their status and get recognition from others.19

Vinay Sharma commented on growing system/tradition of dowry in her book ‘Dowry Death’ that When the British took over around mid-nineteenth century dowry system had grown up into a monstrous curse throughout the country. A preliminary examinations of the historical evidence commented that during this period the old customs of dowry had been perverted. Vinay Sharma justified the above that the tradition of dowry developed due to the burden of heavy land taxes imposed on peasant families. He says, “….in mid nineteenth century, during the reign of Britisher, heavy land taxes was imposed. Therefore, peasant families were inevitable, to find money cash from where ever they could get, failing which they had to lose their land. As a result the dowry increasingly came to be seen as a vital source of income for the husband’s family”. 20 They found dowry system was the easiest means of income to acquire the money and fulfill their mission.

Although the status of women was deteriorated due to the social evils such as dowry, Sati, purdah system, restriction of widow remarriage, women’s education and Jauhar, yet there were social reformers who did a lot for the upliftment of women in the revitalization of India. In British India there had been social reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Swami Vivekananda, and Swami Dayananda Saraswati who have helped women to gain their previous status in society. It was due to the efforts of Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Lord William Bentinck custom of Sati was banned. He was against child marriage and favored widow remarriage. He himself married a widow thus setting the example for the whole society. Along with ‘Dwarka Nath Tagore’ he founded ‘Brahmo Samaj’ for the reform of Indian society and emancipation of women. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar contributed his efforts for girl’s education and in the field of widow–remarriage. He opened many schools for girls. Mahatma Jyotirao Phule was a real philanthropist. He was the one to open first girl school in India. He is also credited with opening first home for widows of the upper caste and a home for newborn girl children so that they can be saved from female infanticide. Swami Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of Arya Samaj, gave a cry, ‘back to Vedas’. He was in favors of equal rights for women in every field. He tried to change the mindset of people with his Vedic teachings.21

Another most important social reformer and freedom fighter was Mohandas Karam Chandra Gandhi. Gandhi has commented that “Any young man who makes dowry a condition for marriage discredits his education and his country and dishonors womanhood……”22

Gandhi was uncompromising in the matter of woman’s rights as he said, “In my opinion she (woman) should labor under no legal disability not suffered by men. I should treat daughters and sons on a footing of perfect equality.23 Gandhi declared that men and women are equal, but not identical. “Intellectually, mentally, and spiritually, woman is equivalent to a male and


396

she can participate in every activity.”24 Gandhi believed that “the custom of dowry turned young girls into mere chattels to be bought and sold. He called this custom pernicious as it lowered the status of women; destroyed their sense of equality with men and defiled the institution of marriage. To curb the venomous dowry system he advised every parent to educate their daughters so that they refuse to marry a young man who wanted a price for marrying and would remain spinster than to be party to the degrading terms. He suggested that a strong public opinion needs to be formulated against dowry and such young men who soil their fingers with such ill-gotten gold should be excommunicated from society. He advocated change in education and also stressed the need of taking recourse to radical measure like organizing youth movements and offering Satyagraha against those perpetuating the custom.”25

Due to the efforts of these social reformers and support of the British legislative decisions were taken to eradicate the evil of dowry from the society. The first concrete attempt in this direction was the Sind Deti-Leti Act, 1939 passed by Sind Provincial Government. This Act contained exhaustive provisions which prohibited giving and taking of dowry as part of contract of betroth of marriage. It prohibited payment in excess of limits specified in the list applicable to the girl’s family, which were drawn either by respective Panchayats, or failing which, by the provincial governments. Such list were registered and published, were binding upon every member of the Panchayat and also provided punishment for contravention of the provisions of the Act. But the Act failed to achieve its objectives. Vinay Sharma mentions in his book ‘Dowry Deaths’ that “After independence, the two states of Bihar and Andhra Pradesh enacted their own states laws. These were enacted out of their own keenness to stamp out the evil effects of dowry system. The first was the Bihar Dowry Restraint Act, 1950. It defined ‘dowry’ as ‘anything paid or delivered as consideration of a contract of any betrothal or marriage’ and prescribed a limit on the amount that could be paid in cash or kind on different occasions excluding the voluntary gifts. The giving and taking of dowry was made punishable offence. Similarly, Andhra Pradesh Dowry Restraint Act was enacted in the year1958. It defined ‘dowry’ as any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given as consideration for any betrothal or marriage. Any Agreement in regard to dowry was void. Giving and taking of dowry were made non-cognizable, boilable and non-compoundable”.26 But the above restrictions imposed on dowry could not be of great help in eradicating evil of dowry tradition from Indian society. These Acts also failed to achieve respective objectives.

Paul. C. Madan agrees that “Dowry as modern phenomenon has been compounded by certain other conditions of the economy and society. For example, for some people it is a customary or religious practice and for others it is to maintain or acquire a new status and prestige. Still for some others it may be an instrument to accumulate easy money out of greediness for varied purposes like to marry their own daughters and / or acquire economic security for the parents who would have invested much many in the placement of their son and now may think that after marriage their earning son may go away and stay outside without caring for them in the old age. Other purpose may be to start and invest the money received in dowry in business at the cost of bride’s father. All these tendencies are, in varying degrees, very preeminent among different social groups who have different calculations in mind and articulations of the same through marital arrangement.”27

Ultimately after all untiring efforts Parliament passed the comprehensive legislation called the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 which was consented by the President of India on 20 may 1961 and was enforced with effect from 1 July 1961……. It covers section 1 to 10 and deals with all atrocities & violence produced due to dowry. To substantiate and assist the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 in preventing the increasing dowry related violence, Section 498A was thus introduced in the IPC in 1983 closely followed by Section 304B which defined the special offence of dowry-related death of a woman in 1986. 28


397

The evil of dowry system is spread in almost all parts of the country. It is quite an abominable and shameful fact that dowry system caused a large number of dowry deaths and suicides in India. Some respective cases are narrated as under to highlight the curse of evil destroyed many lives:

To support the above statement a case narrated by Vinay Sharma in his book entitled ‘Dowry Deaths’ has been quoted here. “There was a case in the state of Rajasthan filed by Smt. Lichhamadevi. The appellant was tried for an offence under section 302, I.P.C. for the murder of her daughter – in- law. High Court reversed the order of acquittal that she might have burnt Pushpa. Jagdish, the husband of Pushpa appears to have no human qualities. He was silent spectator for all the dastardly attack on his wife. He had not even the courtesy to take his wife to the hospital. He did not even make arrangement for securing blood when Pushpa was struggling for life. Yet he was not charge sheeted. The indifferent attitude of the investigating agency should be deprecated”……….. “The deceased has been burnt is not in dispute. It is a case of bride burning. This court in State V. Lakshman Kumar has observed that in the cases of bride burning death sentence may not be improper. The persons who perpetrate such barbaric crimes without any human consideration must be given the extreme penalty”.29

In another case narrated by Amanda Hitchcock, “A young housewife was burnt alive for dowry in Lucknow, in which nineteen-year-old Rinki dreams of a happily married life. Barely a month after her marriage, she was allegedly tortured and then set ablaze by her in–laws for dowry in Indranagar in small hours of Saturday. Daughter of late Gyan Chand, a fish contractor who expired a year ago, Rinki was married to Anil on April 19…. However, soon after the marriage, Bulakram [Anil’s father] demanded a color television instead of a black and white one and a motorcycle as well. When Rinki’s mother failed to meet their demands, the teenage house-wife was subjected to severe physical torture, allegedly by her husband and mother-in-law… On Saturday morning she [Rinki’s mother] was informed that Rinki was charred to death when a kerosene lamp accidently fell on her and her clothes caught fire. However, prima -facie it appeared that the victim was first attacked as her teeth were found broken. Injuries were also apparent on her wrist and chest.”30 In a case of the State of Punjab “…. Amarjit Singh had

Lodged a complaint against a dowry crime, in which newly wedded wife Balvinder was set on fire. She was burnt for dowry. The accused, who returned from abroad, wished to go again. For this purpose he demanded money from his wife. On her pleading helplessness within three months of marriage, he tried to throttle her. On her brother coming to visit her, she told him of an attempt to kill her, if she was not able to satisfy her husband’s demand. On 20th March, 1985, Balwinder Kaur was found in flames in the kitchen. On hearing her shrieks neighbors collected and extinguished the fire. She was taken to hospital where she died. The young wife, in her statement to the assistant sub-inspector said that her husband had set her on fire. The trial court accepted the statement of the deceased and held the husband guilty. High Court reversed the judgment. But Supreme Court, affirming the judgment of trial court convicted the husband under section 302 I.P.C. and sentenced him to life imprisonment.”31

“Dowry harassment claimed life of Jyoti, who was daughter of Chandrashekhar Byadagi, married to Ajjappa Siddappa Kaginelle in Guttal village (Haveritalul) had taken her life after being allegedly harassed by her husband. As per the report of the Police Ajjappa’s mother- in –law, Nagavva, sister-in-law and father in law harassed her for more money. Police said that the harassment compelled her to consume poison…The Guttal police have arrested her husband and father-in-law.”32

“Mr. Wazir Chand of Haryana filed a case against dowry crime. The case was about that not being satisfied with the dowry she brought, her husband and in-laws were making demands for further articles of dowry from Veena and her relatives and were harassing,


398

humiliating and insulting her and ultimately she was driven to commit suicide by setting herself on fire. Accused were tried before the court of the learned additional session Judge, Faridabad under Section 306 and 498 – A respectively of the Indian Panel Code. The Supreme Court confirmed the verdict of High Court.”33

“In state of Punjab V. Iqbal Singh the deceased set herself along with her three children oblige in the afternoon. Because her husband, mother-in-law and sister-in-law taunted and tortured her for demand of dowry so much that she was made to commit suicide. The trial court convicted all of them under section 306. On further appeal, the Supreme Court restored the conviction made by the trial court.”34

In conclusion of the above cases related with dowry it can be said that the tradition of offering dowry which started in Indian society as a voluntary gesture later transformed as an essential custom. As evident this custom usually put burden on the parents of bride, sometimes they undergo through psycho-fear. To eradicate this evil some social and legislative bodies came forward and endeavored to eradicate it from the society so that a pleasant atmosphere could be built up especially for the parents of bride.

But it is very surprising that even after imposing judiciary restrictions such as ‘Sind Deti-Leti Act,1939’, ‘Bihar Dowry Restraint Act, 1950’, ‘Andhra Pradesh Dowry Restraint Act, 1958’, and ‘Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 ( Section-498-A, IPC,1983 & Section- 304 BC,1986)’, the custom of receiving dowry could not be reduced, instead swelled its volume at objectionable and torturous level. Still it is infecting our society.

According to the report of National Crime Bureau of Government of India about 6,000 dowry deaths are committed all over India every year.35 While Partha Banerjee in her article ‘Bride burning and dowry deaths in India’ had written the statement of Ram Jethmalani that near about 15,000 dowry deaths are occurred every year in India.36 And according to the article ‘Dowry System in India’ at least 9, 5000 women are killed every year over dowry.37 It is very painful to know that only very few people suffered by dowry crimes finds positive judgment. According to the article ‘19 Dowry deaths every day, UP tops in killing bride’ in 2005 of the 6,787 dowry deaths cases registered, about 3,719 resulted in acquittals and only in 1,861 incident conviction occurred. Similarly in 2004 of the 7,026 dowry deaths cases registered, 3671 resulted in acquittals while only 1,735 were convicted. The situations were more or less similar in 2003 when of the 6,208 firs of dowry deaths registered only 1,708 witnessed conviction and 3,566 were acquitted.3819 Dowry deaths occur every day on an average with one women dying every 77 minutes in the country.39It is very horrible and shameful to know that the cases of dowry torture are the highest accounting for 32.4% of crimes against women in the Country.40In India state of Uttar Pradesh topped the list with maximum number of dowry deaths as mentioned in the following tables. After Uttar Pradesh Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh are the most dominant and significant states where dowry crimes are committed.41

The reason behind the development of dowry crimes is somewhere, still related with inferior status of women. The concept of her being weak, fragile, incapable is deep rooted in the psychology of people and religion is used as a tool to make her realize more weak. Sometimes women willingly accept bindings and never wanted to raise her voice against any discrimination or torture under the pressure established due to emotional bondage or religious fear. There is one more major reason which has promoted dowry custom i.e. because the law maker and law followers are the same. When the party is at receiving end, greed tempts them, while at giving end their moral values get changed. In contemporary period dowry custom has transformed into fashion. People usually gave their concert for lavish marriages. It is mutually agreed system and everybody has adjusted to the situation. The tradition of dowry was never a problem for rich people but when it comes to medieval class or poor people it becomes a burden. Record of Dowry Deaths in some major States of India from 2003 to 2005 as


399

mentioned in the article entitled ‘19 Dowry deaths every day, UP tops in killing bride’ is a concrete evidence for existing channelize crime.42 The above respective data is given below:-

TABLE 1 State Name 2003 2004 2005 Uttar Pradesh 1,322 1,708 1,564 Bihar 909 1,029 1,014 Madhya Pradesh 648 751 739 West Bengal 329 396 446 Andhra Pradesh 466 512 443 Rajasthan 389 379 361 Orissa 279 319 334 Maharashtra 368 314 341 Delhi 130 126 114 Chennai 18 23 30 Kolkata 16 10 6 Mumbai 8 13 9

Shiva has reported Bride Burning Deaths from – 1987-1994 in various states and union territories of India,43 which is mentioned under the table 2.

TABLE 2 State/Territory Total Andhra Pradesh 2481 Arunachal Pradesh 1 Assam 68 Bihar 1894 Goa 3 Gujarat 604 Haryana 1626 Himachal Pradesh 98 J & K 129 Karnataka 1444 Kerala 63 Madhya Pradesh 3012 Maharashtra 4542 Manipur 0 Meghalaya 2 Mizoram 0 Nagaland 2 Orissa 651 Punjab 946 Rajasthan 1848 Sikkim 0 Tamil Nadu 672 Tripura 42 Uttar Pradesh 11118 West Bengal 1999 Chandigarh 9 Delhi 1037 Pondicherry 14 India overall 34297

Year wise data related to dowry crimes is significant from the existing crime point of view given as under:-

TABLE 3 Year Dowry Deaths Foot note 1988 2,209

44 1990 4,835 1993 5,377 1994 4,935 45

1996 5,513 46 1997 6,006

1998 6,975


400

1999 6,699 2000 6,995 2001 6,851 2002 6,822 2005 6,7000 47

In the history of India dowry was started as a mark of respect and to create harmony

entering into relationship between two families. The intension behind the tradition was pious, determining happiness but it’s out cum, after centuries, became a crime under the guise of ritual and tradition. Greed of bride-groom for materialistic assets promoted an immoral and inhuman practice amongst even educated people of contemporary time. Those who are rich have regarded the tradition as fashion but middle and poor class is the real sufferer; immensely exploited and become the victim of the evils. A relative comparative data of dowry crime is mentioned here to elucidate and evaluate the effect of custom on contemporary society. It is indeed unfortunate that in spite of all efforts made by the government crimes related with dowry are increased, and more methods of exploitations are being encroached. The victims are no one but the fifty percent population of the nation i.e. women. Some glimpses are illustrated as under:

Fig. 1 (f.n.48) Artist Neelima Sheikh’s Insurgence Against The Dowry System

Nilima Sheikh, one of the pioneers amongst feminist artist of India focuses on the

happenings occurring around her. An exhibition ‘Conversations with Traditions’49 featured the paintings of Neelima Sheikh, her work is shaped by her exposure to traditional Indian tales and folk songs as well as actual events imparted a greater emphasis to narratives. Mostly she chooses the subject for her paintings which encompasses various aspects of female life, specifically her contribution to the family, her passion and patience, devotion, sacrifice, ache, suffering etc. As a woman, she is very sensitive towards inhuman and unethical state of a woman; hence she always reciprocates her vulnerability through inventive genres. During the interview she disclosed that she attended some workshops where issues of women were deliberated. She also participated in a theater ‘Vivadi’ as feminist performer. Her tribute to the victims is generally conveyed in the form of paintings. Neelima has the skill to define abstract expressions in various forms such as pain, melancholy, trauma and sufferings are successfully depicted in her paintings through images, color and texture. Imagery transformation of feelings and depiction of psychological state can be comprehended in her paintings. Art critic Randi Hoffman evaluates her work and says, “Sheikh is painterly and graceful. Her symbols are simpler and profound, and her subject matter is emotional.”50 Neelima’s woman is a complete woman who sets ideological frame for the women community of the universe. Her art work encompasses various aspects of women’s life such as wife, beloved, mother, an


401

ascetic, etc. Her paintings on dowry system accentuate women’s devastation in contemporary time. Neelima’s boldness as feminist is indubitably appreciable. Specifically on dowry she presents the whole catastrophe symbolically through a series of paintings entitled ‘When Champa grew-up’ (Plate no. 1-12).

History claims the dowry system is derived from the ancient Hindu custom of ‘kanyadan’, where father presents his daughter jewelry and clothes at the time of her marriage, and “vardakshina” to the groom in cash or kind. The above customs used to accomplish voluntarily out of affection and love of parents towards their daughter. But these days’ dowry customs have become unethical and dangerous. As a feminist artist Neelima’s earliest work speaks about this socio-religious system of contemporary India under the title ‘Champa Grew Up’ (not the girl's real name) which is a twelve panel story painted in 1984. It clearly corresponds about the incident occurred as ‘Dowry murder’ based on a true incident of a young bride murdered by her in-laws. The above series-work presents a sequence of incidents. Neelima narrated the whole story to me, “the girl whose name was Champa used to live near my house in Baroda. There was a children garden in close vicinity where I saw a beautiful girl used to come every day known as Champa, always playing, riding on a bicycle, swinging, giggling, and enjoying freedom of independence with other children. Suddenly Champa disappeared and I was told she got married which shocked me that marriage at such a tender age of sixteen and seventeen is indeed unethical and illegal. After some time when I was crossing her house I saw a huge crowd lamenting, shouting and beating their chests in traditional manner. On enquiry I was told that Champa is dead. Her in-laws tortured her and never allowed her to visit her parents. It was told that they burnt her with Kerosene oil……I was aghast, condemned the offence. I consoled her parents and promised them to represent her case to police department for justice and to punish the culprit. Resentfully I lodged the F.I.R., involved media and social activists but surprisingly after sometime Champa’s parents left the case. At that time I decided to pay my tribute to Champa through a series of paintings”.51 The paintings are discussed below:

The first few panels show a happy school girl, playing on a swing and riding a bicycle (Plate no.1, 2). Then her marriage ceremony is shown and she is leaving her parents' house (Plate no.5). Next as an abused young wife cowering in her husband's family's household and then is set ablaze in the kitchen. (Plate no. 6- 10). In the last two panels, hired mourners in a tight black circle raising their arms toward the heavens as Champa rises above the smoke like a descending angel (Plate no.11, 12).

Neelima informed that to make the paintings more realistic and representing a particular culture Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, her husband, helped her finding folk songs from the Gujarati tradition that actually worked as texts making painted episode more expressive. It was both ironic and gratifying for the artist to find traditional verses closely related to her paintings and used as means of enhancing expressions of the paintings. These traditional songs are usually full of emotions expressing sorrow, melting out their grief through words.

Through traditional idioms Neelima portrayed the grim reality and violence of contemporary life. The painter recollects, “It seemed inevitable that I would paint her story. I had wanted to paint dowry-deaths prior to Champa's death because they confronted us daily in the newspapers. But I struggled to find a mode that could contain anguish without reducing it to cliché”.52

It is unfortunate and shameful that according to Indian government report in 1988, 2,209 women were killed in dowry related incidents and in 1990, 4,835 women were again killed. It is important to reiterate that these are official records, which are under reported. The manipulation in official registration of this kind of crime is apparent in Delhi, where ninety percent of cases of women burnt recorded as accidents, five percent as suicide and only the remaining five percent are shown as murder .According to Government figures there were a total of 5,377 dowry deaths in 1993, an increase of 12% from 1992.53


402

Neelima’s sensitivity forced her to bring reality in front of the world so that the message should reach to people for stern disapproval and condemnation of inhuman act and if not at least who else would witness such paintings ‘will never lower down the dignity of women. These paintings ‘Champa Grew Up’ are executed in Tempera on sanganer paper and are in the collection of New Walk Museum & Art Gallery, Leicester City.

PLATE 1 PLATE 2 PLATE 3




Fig. 2 ‘When Champa Grew up’ (Plate 1-12) References: Sharma,Vinay, Dowry Deaths, Deep and Deep Publications Pvt. Ltd. 2007, p. 11; Article- Bride Burning & Dowry by Shiva,http://india-facts.com/news/women-abuse/2008122150/bride-burning-dowry Sharma,Vinay, Dowry Deaths, Deep and Deep Publications Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi 2007, p. 29 Ibid, p. 16 Ibid, p. 29 TanwarReicha, Dowry, The North Indian Perspective, Hope India Publication, Gurgaon, 2007, p. 8 Mani Chandra Mauni, The Evolution of Ideals of Women hood in Indian Society, Kalpaz Publications, Delhi – 110052, 2005, p. 178 The writer Sharma, Vinay, Dowry Deaths, Deep & Deep Publications Pvt. Ltd., 2007, p. 14 had been cited by Desai, Tripata, Women in India – A Brief Historical Survey (M.M. Publications Pvt. Ltd., 1992), p. 8 The author Sharma Vinay, Dowry Deaths, Deep & Deep Publications Pvt. Ltd. 2007, p.15 had been cited by Tripathi, Chandra Prabhat, ‘Crime against working women’, (APH Publishing Corporation, 1998), p. 2. TanwarReicha, Dowry, the North Indian Perspective, Hope India Publication, 2007, p. 7 The author Sharma Vinay, Dowry Deaths, Deep & Deep Publication PVT. LTD., New Delhi, 2007 p. 17 had been cited by Kaur, Inderjeet, ‘Status of Hindu women in India’, (Chugh Publications, 1983), p. 7 Sharma,Vinay, Dowry Deaths, Deep and Deep Publications Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi 2007, p. 17 Ibid, p. 18. Mani Chandra Mauli, The Evolution of Ideals of women hood in Indian Society, Kalpaz Publications, New Delhi – 110052, 2005, p. 177 had been cited by Manu smriti, p. 42.18.19 Ibid, p. 178


403

Ibid. Mani Chandra Mauli, The Evolution of Ideals Of Womanhood in Indian Society, Kalpaz Publications, Delhi,2005.P.178. Had been cited by Ghosh Bharat kaPrachinaItihasa, p. 93. Mani Chandra Mauli, The Evolution of Ideals of Womanhood in Indian Society, Kalpaz Publications, Delhi, 2005.p.179. Article:-Indian Women, http://www.mapsofindia.com/culture/indian/-women. htm Paul, Madan C. Dowry and position of women in India, Inter-India Publications, New Delhi, Sharma Vinay, Dowry Deaths, Deep & Deep Publication Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 2007 p. 2.; Article-How the British Created the Dowry System In Punjab By Sanjeev Nayyar, Interview with Veena Talvar, Time of India-31/1/03, http://www.esamskriti.com/essay-chapters/How-the-British-created-the-dowry-system-in-Punjab-7.aspx Article:IndianWomen,http://www.mapsofindia.com/culture/indian/-women.html Sharma Vinay, Dowry Deaths, Deep & Deep Publication Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 2007 p. 22-23 Article-Gandhi and Women, http://www.mkgandhi-sarvodaya.org/articles/kaur.html Article-Gandhi and Status of Women by Jyotsana Kamat, http://www.kamat.com/mmgandhi/gwomen.htm Article-Gandhi on Gender Violence and Gender Equality: An Overview by Dr. (Ms) AnupmaKaushik, http://www.mkgandhi-sarvodaya.org/ articles/gender-equality.htmwomen.html Sharma Vinay, Dowry Deaths, Deep and Deep Publications Pvt. Ltd. 2007, p. 22-23 Paul. C. Madan, Dowry and Position of Women in India, Inter – India Publications, 1986, p. 13 Sharma, Vinay, Dowry Deaths, Deep & Deep Publication Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 2007 p. 24-25. Sharma Vinay, Dowry Deaths, Deep and Deep Publications Pvt. Ltd. 2007, p. 55 Article-Rising number of dowry deaths in India by Amanda Hitchcock, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/Jul2001/ind-J04shtml Sharma,Vinay, Dowry Deaths, Deep and Deep Publications Pvt. Ltd. 2007, p. 87 Article-Rising number of dowry deaths in India by Amanda Hitchcock, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/Jul2001/in-J04.shtml. Sharma, Vinay, Dowry Deaths, Deep and Deep Publications Pvt. Ltd. 2007, p. 65 Sharma, Vinay, Dowry Deaths, Deep and Deep Publications Pvt. Ltd. 2007, p. 65 Article- Chronic Hunger and the Status of Women in India, by Carol S. Coonrod, June 1998, http://www.thp.org/reports/indiawom.htm; Article-‘Bride Burning & Dowry’, by Shiva, http://india_facts.com/news/ women_abuse/2001822150/bride_buring_dowry Bride burning and dowry deaths in India (an original article) by Partha Banerjee, http://www.hindnet.org/srh.hanic/1196__2ms00193html Article- Dowry System in India, http://www.azaindia.org/social_issues/ dowry_system_in_India_html; Bride burning and dowry death in India (An original article) http://www.hindunet.org/srh_home/1996_2/ msg001 93.html Article- 19 Dowry deaths every day, UP tops in killing bride, htpp:/news.oneindia.in/2007/03/11/19_dowry_deaths_every_day_up_tops_in_killing_bride_1173602684.html Article-19 Dowry deaths every day, UP tops in killing bride,http://news.oneindia.in/2007/03/11/19-dowry-deaths-every-day-yo-tops-in killing-bride-1173602684.html Article- Dowry System in India, http://www.azaindia.org/social_issues/dowry_system_in_India_html


404

Article-19 Dowry deaths every day, UP tops in killing bride, htpp:/news.oneindia.in/2007/03/11/19_dowry_deaths_every_day_up_tops_in_killing_bride_1173602684.html Article-19 Dowry deaths every day, UP tops in killing bride, htpp:/news.oneindia.in/2007/03/11/19_dowry_deaths_every_day_up_tops_in_killing_bride_1173602684.html Article-Bride Burning & Dowry, by Shiva, http://india_facts.com/news/women_abuse/2001822150/bride_buring_dowry Article- Bride Burning and Laws in India, Bmhtml:file://J:\Indian%20law%20for%20woman\Bride%20burning%20&% 20Laws%20i… Article- Bride Burning and Laws in India, Bmhtml: file://J:\Indian%20law%20for%20woman\Bride%20burning%20& %20Laws% Some glimpses of Bride-Burning cases, http://www.google.co.in/ search?hl=en&q=dowry+death+in+india&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1887&bih=969&pdl=500&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=vPwKT_ajDIfJrAfT8I3ZDw Conversations with Traditions’ is a series of exhibitions explore the dialogue between contemporary issues and indigenous artistic languages expressed in the work of Asian and Asian American artists. The series will focus on artists who are developing new expressions out of traditional visual idioms or who create new ways to connect with or challenge centuries-old cultural norms. http://www.asiasociety.org/arts-culture/asia-society-museum/past-exhibitions/conversations-traditions-nilima-sheikh-and-shahzia http://www.saffronart.com/artist/artistprofile.aspx?artistid=104 From an interview with Neelima Sheikh Artist Profile-Saffron Art: Neelima Sheikh http://www.indianchild.com/dowry_in_india.htm


405

DETERMINATION OF THE CHEMICAL AND GENETIC DIFFERENCES OF LAURUS COLLECTED FROM THREE DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHIC AND CLIMATIC AREAS IN

LEBANON

Chmit Mohammad Said Doctoral School of Sciences and Technologies, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon.

Kanaan Hussein Laboratory of Biotechnology of Natural Substances and Health Products, Faculty of

Pharmacy, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon

Abstract

Laurus (Lauraceae) is growing in many warm regions of the world, particularly in southern Europe and around the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, including Lebanon. The aim of the present study was to determine and compare leaves, fruits, essential oil and the fatty acids of Laurus collected from three different geographic and climatic areas (Ras-Alnaqoura, Deir-El-Qamar and Zahle), and determine the genetic identity and the Genetic distance between these samples. A phytochemical test was done on different extracts prepared from dried leaves, using solvents of different polarities to determine Alkaloids, Flavonoids, Tannins, Anthraquinones and Coumarins. Moreover additional analytical experiments were applied on the samples to determine the Laurus composition of trace elements and showed that it was rich in K, Ca and Si. The highest percentages have been found in Deir-El-Qamar. The determination of fatty acids showed a high concentration in stearic, oleic, vaccenic and palmitic acids. we studied the genetic differences between the three samples of Laurus by ISSR (Inter Simple Sequence Repeat) technique, according to this study Laurus was classified into two major groups and two subgroups, the genetic distance between Deir-El-Qamar sample and other samples was about 70.80%, this result indicates a significant genetic diversity between the three regions.

Keywords: Laurus, Volatile oil, Fatty acid, trace element, ISSR. Introduction

Laurus is also known as sweet bay, bay laurel, Grecian laurel, true bay, and bay tree, is either an evergreen shrub or small tree, belongs to the family Lauraceae which comprises numerous aromatic and medicinal plant (Hogg et al., 1974). Laurel is usually growing to a height of from 20 to 30 feet. It is cultivated in many warm regions of the world, particularly in southern Europe and around the shores of the Mediterranean Sea (Lewis, 1984) which includes Lebanon. It has been in this country since ancient times. Lebanese people use the fruits in manufacturing soap as fruits contain fixed oils (Bozan et al., 2007). But they do not care about leaves or fruits volatile oil, which has a lot of medical effective. Bay leaves essential oil is one of main products from bay trees that are used in food, spice, flavoring and cosmetic industries (Sari et al., 2006). Laurus essential oil is used for the preparation of hair lotion due to its antidandruff activity and for the external treatment of psoriasis. Its fruits are generally utilized for the production of perfumed soaps and candle manufacture because of their fatty acid content (Hafizoǧlu et al., 1993). It also used for relieving hemorrhoid and rheumatic pains and as a diuretic (Kivçak et al., 2002), It has antibacterial and antifungal properties (Ertürk, 2006). Different studies made on the essential oil show influence of the


406

area of culture, of variety and harvest season on the chemical composition (Rohloff et al., 2005; Flamini et al., 2007). The volatile oil content of bay leaves ranges from 1 to 3% on fresh weight basis. The main constituent of the essential oil includes 1-8 cineole (45-50%), α-pinene, sabinene, linalool, eugenol, eugenol acetate, methyleugenol, ternineol acetate, and phellandrene, also Fruits contain many fatty acids as lauric 7.5%, palmitic 25%, oleic 39.6%, and linoleic 22% (NURBAŞ et al., 2005). Also Laurus contains a very important sesquiterpene lactones called Costunolide (Ferrari et al., 2005), which is anticancer compounds (Rasul et al., 2012). Given the scarcity of local studies on Laurel widespread in Lebanon, has not been reported to date. The aim of the current study was to determine and compare the essential oil and the fatty acids of Laurus leaves and fruits which collected from three different geographic and climatic situations, in the end the genetic analysis were done to show the relationship between Laurus samples. Materials and methods Plant material

The samples of Laurus leaves and fruits were collected from three Areas in Lebanon, the first from the coast (Ras-Alnaqoura), the second from the mountain (Deir-El-Qamar), and last one from the Plains (Zahle) in year 2013. The Samples were air-dried at room temperature in the shade for some weeks. They had a final moisture content of 10.0 %. Before using them, the dried samples were grinded in a blender. At the end of the milling process, the particle sizes were in the range of 0.8–0.9 mm. Phytochemical Tests

Phytochemical tests are performed on different extracts prepared from the dried leaves and ground, using many solvents of different polarities. They are generally simple, quick to implement, performed mostly in test tubes. The detection method of the different families of chemical compounds co-existing is a precipitation reaction or staining reagents. These reactions result in the appearance of turbidity, flocculation or a colour change which may, depending on the intensity of the result, the concentration of certain constituents. Supplementary analysis (Extraction and Determination of trace elements from the leafs of Laurus)

The supplementary analysis of Laurus leaf is done in Monocrystal Laboratory of Ukraine. 2g of Laurus leaf powder was placed in a capillary tube of fluorized polymers, in order to disperse it under pressure and microwaves. Then 5ml of HNO3 (70%), the capillary was then closed firmly and put in a steam room for 20 min, under a pressure that do not exceeds 120 psi (pounds per square inch). After cooling and filtering, the substance was put in a 50ml tube. Water was added afterwards to complete the volume (50ml) (solution 1). From this solution 1ml was take and put into a 100ml tube and completed with water up to 100ml, obtaining the solution 2.In order to determine macro elements percentages a spectrometer od the type of Thermo Jarred Ash atomic absorption spectrometer was used:

Solution 1 was used to determine the percentage of Zn, Fe, Cu, Ni, Mn, Al and P. Solution 2 was used to determine the percentage of Ca, Mg, K and Na.Conditions: liquid flow speed: 1,58ml/1min 2 sec. The flow speed of added Argon (Ar): 1L/min. The flow speed of initial Argon (Ar): 14L/min. Volatile oil extraction

The volatile oils of Laurus leaves or fruits were obtained by the process of hydro distillation in the Clevenger apparatus. (100g) of Laurus (leafs or fruits), were placed in a


407

flask (2.5L) and hydro distilled for 2.5h. The oil samples were dried over anhydrous sodium sulphate and stored at 4°C in the dark. Fatty oil extraction

Fruits oil is extracted by using petroleum ether in ultrasonic bath 15 min up for twice. Then it filtered and evaporated by using a rotary evaporator at 50°C. The fatty oil Dried and stored in the dark at room temperature until use. Volatile oil analysis

50 microns of volatile oil sample was Taken and extended to 250 microns by hexane, it mixed then 1 micron from it was injected in Gas chromatography (GC) for analyse. Gas chromatography (GC) analysis was carried out on a Shimadzu GC 2010 with FID detector and a DB23 capillary column (60 m×0.25 mm; film thickness 0.25 μm). The carrier gas was helium with a flow rate of 0.72 ml/min., the oven temperature for first 4 min. was kept at 60 °C and then increased at a rate of 4 °C/min. until reached to the temperature of 250 °C and keep on for 5 mints, injector and detector temperature were set at 250 °C. Fatty oil analysis

The fatty acid components of lipids are converted to the simplest convenient volatile derivative, usually methyl esters. So 50 microns of fatty oil sample was Taken and extended to 2 microns by hexane, it mixed then the free fatty acids was esterification by using methanol sodium hydrate solution (29g NaOH in 250 ml methanol). The solution was centrifuged for 2mins at 4000 rpm. The upper layer hexane was taken and washed with water, and then the upper layer (hexane) was taken again and dried on anhydrous sodium sulphate. 1 microns of hexane containing fatty acids was injected in GC. Gas chromatography (GC) analysis was carried out on a Shimadzu GC 17 AFW with FID detector and a DB23 capillary column (60 m×0.25 mm; film thickness 0.25 μm). The carrier gas was helium with a flow rate of 0.81 ml/min., the oven temperature for first 4 min. was kept at 75 °C and then increased at a rate of 3 °C/min. until reached to the temperature of 180 °C and keep on for 10 mints, injector and detector temperature were set at 260 °C. Determination of fatty acids from Laurus

The following test was performed in the institute of Monocrystals, Kharkov, Ukraine. Approximately 1.2 g of dry the leaves previously grounded into particles of 0.5 mm was extracted with methanol-chloroform in portions of 10 ml three times for 3 hours. The mix was filtered through the paper filter into a 10 ml flask. 1g of anhydrous sodium sulphate was added to the extract obtained, which was evaporated at 60°C in the nitrogen stream until dryness (a residue of 40mg). 1 ml of diethyl ester, 5 ml of methanol and 0.2 ml of acetyl chloride were added to the residue and the flask was filled with nitrogen, and then it was boiled with the reflux condenser on the glycerine bath for 45 min at 70°C. The solution obtained was evaporated in the nitrogen stream to a volume of 0.3 ml. Then 2 ml of cyclohexane were added and stirred for 1 min. After the complete stratification of the layers, the upper cyclohexane layer was used as a test sample. It was filtered through a filter with 0.2 g of sodium sulphate. The resulting solution was subjected to analysis by gas chromatography Shimadzu GC-14B, FID chromatography under the following conditions: capillary column (60m x 0.32mm HP-23; 0.25μm), the column temperature was held at 175°C for 2 min, and then raised to 225°C with a rate of 3°C / min, injector and detector temperatures were 240°C and 250°C respectively, the carrier gas flow rate (nitrogen) was 1.0 ml/min, split ratio was 1:60. The content of each fatty acid was calculated by the internal regulation method (Kanaan et al., 2005).


408

The genetic study This study is done to identify differences among Laurus collected from Lebanon (Ras-

Alnaqoura, Deir-El-Qamar and Zahle) by ISSR technique (inter simple sequence repeat) which considered as a powerful technique to determine genetic relations among individuals. A total of 12 ISSR primers were used and analysed according to the polymorphism. Genomic DNA was extracted from leaves (Figure 3, A) by using the sodium dodecyl sulphate protein precipitation method described by (Milligan, 1998). The purified DNA was stored at 4°C. The DNA with the primers was generated thousands to millions of copies of a particular DNA sequence by using PCR (Polymerase chain reaction) then the samples were separated on 6% polyacrylamide gels. The DNA bands were photographed by UV source (Figure 3, B). The presence or absence of polymorphic ISSR marker bands was manually scored (1 present, 0 absent), and the statistic program PopGen 32was using for droning the genetic tree. Results and discussion Phytochemical Tests (table1)

The phytochemical tests showed the chemical groups that exist in Laurus leaves (Table 1), as shown in the table, Laurus leaves are rich in Alkaloids, Flavonoids, Tannins, Anthraquinones, Saponins, Sterols steroids and Reducing carbohydrates, while Laurus has no Coumarins or starch.

Table 1: The Phytochemical groups in the leaves of Laurus Region Chemical group

The Sea Coast (Ras-Alnaqoura)

The Mountain (Deir-El-Qamar)

The Plains (Zahle)

Alkaloids + ++ ++ Flavonoids + ++ + Tannins + ++ + Anthraquinones + + + Coumarins - - - Saponins ++ + + Sterols steroids + + + Starch - - - Reducing carbohydrates ++ ++ +

Supplementary analysis (Extraction and Determination of trace elements from the leafs of Laurus)

The trace elements were detected in Laurus samples and their concentration were determined and shown in (figure1). Fifteen trace elements were found in Laurus analysed. Laurus appeared rich in K, Ca, Mg, Si, and Na.

Figure 1 Comparison of trace elements in Laurus leaves

Volatile oil extraction

As seen in the (table 2), Laurus which grow in the Mountain gives the high rate of leaves volatile oil while, Laurus which grow in the plains gave the high rate of fruit oil:

050

100150200250300350400450500550600650

Sr K Na Zn Cu Ca Mo Ni Pb Mg Mn Al P Si Fe



The Plains (Zahle) Co

mpo

sitio

n in

mg/

100g


409

Table 2: The Volatile Oil amount of Laurus leaves and fruits Region



The Plains (Zahle)

Leaves Fruits Leaves Fruits Leaves Fruits V.O amount mL/100g 1.43 0.63 2.51 0.75 0.77 0.95

Fatty oil extraction

As seen in the (table 3), Laurus which grow in plains gives the high rate of fruits volatile oil:

Table 3: The Fatty Oils amount of Laurus fruits Region The Sea Coast

(Ras-Alnaqoura) The Mountain (Deir-El-Qamar)

The Plains (Zahle)

F.O mL/100g 22.53 17.52 28.14 Volatile oil analysis

As seen in (Table 4), 18 different compounds were determined. Although there was no marked difference in the composition of leaves or fruits oils:

Table 4: the essential oil composition of Laurus leaves and fruits Region Volatile oil



The Plains (Zahle)

Leaves Fruits Leaves Fruits Leaves Fruits α-Pinene 3.00 7.69 6.03 11.69 2.14 17.96 Camphene 0.17 1.08 0.14 1.31 0.16 2.61 β-pinene 2.88 3.91 4.17 6.91 2.51 9.51 Sabinen 9.74 2.93 6.10 4.49 4.06 3.47 Myrcene 0.43 0.90 0.20 1.01 0.12 1.50 α-Phellandrene 0.12 8.29 0.14 14.55 0.06 17.07 Limonen 2.33 1.43 2.50 2.42 1.18 2.89 γ-terpinene 0.82 2.42 0.78 3.41 0.44 4.53 Trans β ocymen 0.73 11.82 1.08 0.57 0.51 3.92 1.8 Cineol 57.05 48.01 58.45 31.78 65.99 17.64 P-Cymen 1.06 0.48 2.18 1.57 1.46 0.98 Linalyl acetate 0 0.24 0 0.45 0 0 Linalool 0.75 0.40 0.59 0.24 0.51 0.24 Bornyl acetate 0 2.07 0 2.87 0.02 3.40 Terpinen-4-Ol 2.48 0.35 3.63 1.26 3.77 0.77 β-Caryophllen 0.41 1.56 0.17 2.36 0.53 2.35 α-Terpineol 2.90 1.29 3.64 2.07 3.26 0.87 α-humulene 11.02 2.39 6.80 4.48 7.92 4.38

Fatty oil analysis

As seen in the (Table 5), many different compounds were determined. Table 5: the fatty acids composition of Laurus leaves and fruits

Region Fatty acid



The Plains (Zahle)

Leaves Fruits Leaves Fruits Leaves Fruits C8:0 Caprylic acid ----- ----- 2.284 ----- ----- ----- C10:0 Capric acid 3.190 0.146 2.333 0.321 ----- 0.175 C10:1n3 ------------ 1.997 ----- 2.030 ----- 1.731 ----- C10:1n6 ------------ ----- ----- 1.599 ----- 1.533 ----- C10:2n ------------ ----- ----- 2.149 ----- ----- ----- C11:0 Heptacosanoic acid ----- ----- 1.250 ----- ----- ----- C12:0 Lauric acid ----- 9.109 10.905 21.432 2.124 15.617 C12:1n6 ------------ ----- ----- 2.346 ----- ----- ----- C13:0 Nonacosanoic acid ----- ----- 0.880 ----- 1.710 ----- C13:1n ------------ 2.514 ----- 1.175 ----- ----- ----- C14:0 Myristic acid 2.983 0.391 0.796 0.876 1.693 0.813


410

C14:1n6 ------------ ----- ----- 0.849 ----- 3.599 ----- C14:1n9 Myristoleic acid ----- ----- 1.993 ----- ----- ----- C15:0 Pentadecanoic acid ----- ----- 0.884 ----- ----- ----- C15:1 Pentadecenoic acid 3.021 ----- 1.651 ----- 1.865 ----- C16:0 Palmitic acid 24.588 19.479 14.097 15.483 15.01 20.512 C16:1n6 ------------ ----- ----- 1.042 ----- ----- ----- C16:1n9 Palmitoleic acid ----- 0.877 1.019 0.402 ----- 0.548 C16:2 Hexadecadienoic ----- ----- 0.819 ----- ----- ----- C16:3 ------------ 2.114 ----- 1.824 ----- 2.252 ----- C17:0 Margaric acid ----- ----- 1.772 ----- ----- ----- C18:0 Stearic acid 1.288 0.905 1.092 0.422 4.640 0.873 C18:1n9 Oleic acid 7.123 43.098 4.786 34.373 4.157 36.388 C18:2n9,12 Linoleic acid 17.746 24.492 7.790 25.062 9.786 20.141 C18:3n9,12,15 Linolenic acid 30.716 1.094 23.522 0.908 21.362 1.081 C20:0 Arachidic acid 0.322 0.114 0.747 0.327 2.380 0.461 C20:1 Arachidonic acid 1.402 0.295 2.242 0.394 24.426 3.391 C20:2 ------------ 0.996 ----- 6.124 ----- 1.732 -----

The genetic study

In this study genetic similarities and differences in Laurus were determined for the first time in Lebanon. According to this study Laurus was classified into two major groups and tow subgroups ;( figure 2)

Figure 2 ISSR Dendogram of genetic distance showing grouping of the three populations of Laurus.

The statistic study by PopGen 32 program shown the genetic identity and distance

between Laurus samples, it is clear in the table below: Table 6: Comparison of Genetic identity (above diagonal) and Genetic distance (below diagonal) for the three

populations POP ID Ras-Alnaqoura Zahle Deir-El-Qamar Ras-Alnaqoura **** 0.4318 0.1364 Zahle 0.8398 **** 0.4318 Deir-El-Qamar 1.9924 0.8398 ****


411

Figure 3 A: DNA extraction B: DNA bands Conclusion

The plant Laurus has been selected from Mount Lebanon (Deir-El-Qamar) due to its high content in essential elements when compared to other regions. Our study has shown that the plant Laurus contains high amounts of trace elements, such as K, Ca, Si, and fatty acids. The same thing applies to tannins flavonoids. In conclusion and at large, the study has shown that the active substances present in this plant such as essential oil and fatty acids may be play a non-negligible role in medicine, pharmacy, food and industry. References: Hogg , Terhune ,and Lawrence B. Dehydro-1,8-Cineole: a new monoterpene oxide in Laurus Nobilis oil. 13:868-869,1974. Lewis Y. Species and Herbs for the Food Industry. Orpington, England: Food Trade Press. 1984. Bozan , and Karakaplan U. Antioxidants from laurel (Laurus nobilis L.) berries: influences of extraction procedure on yield and antioxidant activity of extracts. Acta Alimentaria, 36:321-328, 2007. Sari, Oguz, and Bilgic A. Breaking Seed Dormancy of Laurel (Laurus nobilis L.). New Forests, 31:403-408.2006. Hafizoǧlu, and Reunanen M. Studies on the Components of Lauras nobilis from Turkey with Special Reference to Laurel Berry Fat. Lipid / Fett, 95:304-308, 1993. Kivçak, and Mert T. Preliminary evaluation of cytotoxic properties of Laurus nobilis leaf extracts. Fitoterapia, 73:242-243, 2002. Ertürk Ö. Antibacterial and antifungal activity of ethanolic extracts from eleven spice plants. Biologia, 61:257-278, 2006. Rohloff, Dragland, Mordal, and Iversen TH. Effect of harvest time and drying method on biomass production, essential oil yield, and quality of peppermint (Mentha x piperita L.). J Agric Food Chem, 53:4141-4148, 2005. Flamini, Tebano, Cioni, Ceccarini, Ricci, and Longo I. Comparison between the conventional method of extraction of essential oil of Laurus nobilis L. and a novel method which uses microwaves applied in situ, without resorting to an oven. Journal of Chromatography A, 1143:36-41, 2007. NURBAŞ, and BAL Y. Recovery of fixed and volatile oils from laurus Nobilis L. fruit and leaves by solvent extraction method Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi Müh.Mim.Fak.Dergisi C., 2005. Ferrari, Castilho, Tomi, Rodrigues, Costa, and Casanova J. Direct identification and quantitative determination of costunolide and dehydrocostuslactone in the fixed oil of Laurus novocanariensis by 13C-NMR spectroscopy. Phytochemical analysis : PCA, 16:104-107, 2005.


412

Rasul, Parveen, and Ma T. Costunolide: A novel anti-cancer sesquiterpene lactone. Bangladesh Journal of Pharmacology, 7, 2012. Kanaan, Krivorushko, Makhlouf, Yassine, and Murtada M. Trace elements and lipids in Padina pavonica in Lebanon. Arab Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2:21-28, 2005. Chahine, and Feng J. Protective effects of taurine against oxidative stress. Arzneim-Forsch/Drug Res, 48:360-364, 1998. Braca, Tomassi, Barry, Pizza, Politi, and Morelli I. Antioxidant Principles from Bauhinia tarapotensis. Journal of Natural Products, 64:892-895, 2001. Milligan BG. Molecular Genetic Analysis of Populations: A Practical Approach. Oxford: IRL Press at Oxford University Press, (1998). Imbs, Shevchenko, Sokhoverkhov, Semenova, Skriptsova, and Zvyagintseva TN. Seasonal variations of the composition and structural characteristics of polysaccharides from the brown alga Costaria costata. Chemistry of Natural Compounds, 45:786-791, 2009. Heyraud, Gey, Leonard, Rochas, Girond, and Kloareg B. NMR spectroscopy analysis of oligoguluronates and oligomannuronates prepared by acid or enzymatic hydrolysis of homopolymeric blocks of alginic acid. Application to the determination of the substrate specificity of Haliotis tuberculata alginate lyase. Carbohydr Res, 289:11-23, 1996. Grasdalen, Larsen, and Smidsrød O. A p.m.r. study of the composition and sequence of uronate residues in alginates. Carbohydr Res, 68:23-31, 1979. Mathlouthi, and Koenig JL. Vibrational Spectra of Carbohydrates. Advances in Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biochemistry, 44:7-89, 2001. Silverstein, Morrill, and Bassler GC. Spectrometric identification of organic compounds 5th edition. New York: Wiley, (1991). Mackie W. Semi-quantitative estimation of the composition of alginates by infra-red spectroscopy. Carbohydr Res, 20:413-415, 1971.


413

OBJECT RECOGNITION THROUGH KINECT USING HARRIS TRANSFORM

Azeem Hafeez Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering Department, FAST - NUCES

Hafsa Arshad Ali Kamran Rida Malhi

Moiz Ali Shah Muhammad Ali

Saad Malik Final Year Student of Electrical Engineering Department,

FAST - NUCES, Faisal Town, Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

With the growing research in the field of computer vision and image processing, numerous applications of Object Recognition have been developed. This paper discusses the recognition of objects through image processing. For this purpose RGB camera is being used. Initially, templates of objects (ball, box and bottle) are stored and processed for template matching. At real time original image data is taken and then divided into four frames, containing an object in each frame. These frames have resolution equal to the resolution of the templates. All the processing is done on colour images. Then, Harris Transform is applied. Using the co-variance matrix, error is calculated and compared with the threshold to match objects. Object is basically recognized by calculating the difference in the co-variance of images.

Keywords: Co-variance, frame extraction, down-sampling, harris transform, speech recognition, kinect Introduction

Speech recognition is an active region of research in the field of computer vision. In this system to recognize the voice commands, built-in speech recognition of Kinect was used. A speech grammar was created in this system and a code in C# language was written to start the speech engine and match commands. The input to this system was the voice command from the microphone array of Kinect. Anyone can give a voice command and the software acts according to the response stored for that command. For voice commands, two to three words were stored corresponding to each image. We tested the system on four objects. Images of four objects were being used as samples. The object recognition was done using image stream data from the RGB camera. After acquiring the pixel data of the image frame, processing was done. First, the background colour was identified (in this case the colour of the background was red) and removed, turning everything, except for the object, black. The resulting pixel data was of the object with a black background. The R, G and B arrays were separated for further processing. The covariance was used to compare the similarity between the template image and the image taken at run time. In this way, Harris Transform was used for object recognition.


414

Implementation of the proposed algorithm This section describes in detail the implementation and the steps of the different

algorithms used in this object recognition system. The steps of the system are as follows: Take images of the objects and store them after scaling to required resolution

(160x160 in this case) so that they can be used as templates for matching. Receive a voice command to search the template image of the object in the database. Remove the background of both, the image taken at run time and the template image.

Extract pixel information from image stream data of Kinect. Apply Harris transform on both the template image and the image acquired at run time from Kinect to compare the similarity between both. The steps mentioned above are explained in sub-sections given below: Speech Recognition

A library of speech grammar for identification of commands given by user was build first. The templates were stored corresponding to each object name in the database. User’s voice command was taken as an input through the microphone array of Kinect to find the desired object. The C# language code was executed to start the speech engine and match commands. If the command was in the library, template image of the object was searched and loaded from the data base. Otherwise no further processing was done. Built in library of Kinect was used for speech -recognition.

Fig1: Speech Recognition through Kinect

Algorithm for reduction of data for fast computation

The template image resolution was 640 x 480 initially. It was down sampled so that its resolution matches that of the divided frame of the image taken at run time. The template image was down sampled by a factor of 12 to make the image resolution 160 x160. Template image pixel data had 640 columns and 480 rows. To reduce resolution of columns from 640 to 160, pixel data was collected as pixeldata0, pixeldata4, pixeldata8,. . . . . . . . . . . . , pixeldata640. Consecutive 3 pixels data was removed. Similarly for the rows, pixel data was collected as pixeldata0, pixeldata3, pixeldata6, . . . . . . . . . ,pixeldata480. Consecutive 2 pixels data was removed and rows were reduced from 480 to 160. The new pixel data obtained resulted in the down sampled image which was further processed. Fig2 illustrates how down sampling was done on the template image.


415

Fig2: Downsampling of template image.

Fig3:Result of Downsampling

Extraction of frames

Image obtained from the image stream data of KinectCam was of resolution 480 x 640. There were four objects in the image taken at run time. Those four objects were placed at equal distance. Therefore four frames were captured from the image taken at run time, each frame containing one object. The image of each object was of 160 x160 resolution, which was equal to the template resolution. Harris Transform was then applied to the resulting images of 160x 160 resolution.

Fig4a: Image captured through Kinect.

Fig4b: Extracted images. Harris Transform

Harris transform compares similarities between different images using co-variance. Image data from the Kinect image stream is in the form of B,G, R, and α.


416

Fig5: Data captured through Kinect. For each image frame extracted from the image taken at run time, separate arrays were

made for blue, green and red (α was not required).The template image data was also put in separate arrays of blue, green and red and Harris transform was applied to those arrays as well. Harris transform was used to compare similarities between the template image and the image frames of image taken at run time using co-variance. The general formula for the covariance is:

𝐶𝑥𝑦 =1

𝑁 − 1(𝑥𝑖 − x)(𝑦𝑖 − y)𝑁

𝑖=0

For image covariance, covariance was calculated of red data of image1 with red data of image1, red data of image1 with blue data of image1, red data of image1 with green data of image1. Similarly,for blue data of image1 and green data of image1. In the same way image2 covariance was also calculated.

Fig6: combinations for co variance The matrix obtained by nine covariance was as shown below:

𝐶𝑅𝑅 𝐶𝐺𝑅 𝐶𝐵𝑅 𝐶𝐺𝑅 𝐶𝐺𝐺 𝐶𝐺𝐵 𝐶𝐵𝑅 𝐶𝐵𝐺 𝐶𝐵𝐵

The next step was to calculate error between covariance of two images correspondingly. The formula used to calculate error is as given below: Error= 𝐶𝑅𝑅1 − 𝐶𝑅𝑅2 / 𝐶𝑅𝑅1


417

Conclusion: Object Recognition was done quite efficiently. We have done more than 20

experiments from which five have been shown in the above figure. Minimum error of 8% and maximum error of 20% occurs between the covariance of the template image and the matched object image. This method uses the extraction of frames, downsampling of the image and covariance of image. Image matching has been done on the basis of their R, G and B value. A distinguishing feature of this method is that it works for objects placed at a different angle than the template image. References: Jason Owens, “Object detection using kinect,” in Title of His Published Book, Army Research Laboratory David Katuhe, Programming with the Kinect Windows SDK D.G.Lowe, Distinctive image features from scale invariant key points


418

A TECHNICAL GLANCE ON SOME COSMETİC OİLS

Kenan Yildirim, PhD Department of Fiber and Polymer Engineering Faculty of Natural Sciences, Architecture

and Engineering,Bursa Technical University Bursa, Turkiye A. Melek Kostem, MSc

Tübitak-Butal Bursa Test and Analysis Laboratory, Bursa Turkiye

Abstract

The properties of molecular structure, thermal behavior and UVA protection of 10 types of healthy promoting oils which are argania, almond, apricot seed, and jojoba, wheat germ, and sesame seed, avocado, cocoa, carrot and grapes seed oils were studied. FT-IR analysis was used for molecular structure. DSC analysis was used for thermal behavior and UV analysis was used for UV, visible and IR light absorption. Molecular structure and thermal behavior of avocado and cocoa are different from the others. Contrary to the spectra of avocado and cocoa on which the peaks belongs to carboxylic acid very strong, the spectra of the others do not involve carboxylic acid strong peaks. Almond, wheat germ and apricot seed oil absorb all UVA before 350 nm wave length. The UV protection property of grapes seed and cocoa is very well. Protection of wheat germ, almond and apricot seed oils to UVA is well respectively. Absorption of IR rate change from 7% to 25% for carrot, apricot seed, wheat germ, argania, avocado and grapes seed respectively.

Keywords: Cosmetic oils, thermal behavior, molecular structure, UV protection Practical applications

Except avocado and cocoa oils the others may be used for production of inherently UV protection yarn. This type of yarn can be used for producing UV protection clothes. UV protection clothes are state of the art nowadays. These type of clothes are manufactured by finishing technique now. Inherently UV protection clothes may have more advantage than the clothes produced by finishing technique. Beside the UV protection properties, many benefits may be obtained by using these oils like moistening, vitamin emitted and the other healthy related conditions. Introduction

The organic oils produced from plants are in state of art nowadays for using cosmetic areas. According to investigation on ancient cosmetics, these products contain a mixture of components of very different nature (organic and inorganic) and have some properties. From ancient texts or through archaeological findings, cosmetics’ preparation ingredients have been recognized. Most of the mixtures of cosmetics described in the literature correspond to products formed with oils and/or resins, probably used as perfumes or unguents [1]. Fruit seed oils have been used as chemical additives in food, perfumes, and toiletries. Plant seed oils involve antimicrobial compounds and antioxidants [2,3].

Fatty acids can be in two different forms like saturated (no double bonds between the carbon atoms) or unsaturated (one or more double bonds). Unsaturated forms divided into three groups as monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and long-chain polyunsaturated. Most of the properties of the oils are controlled by fatty acid composition. These two forms determine the stability and property of the oil. Lauric (12:0), myristic (14:0), palmitic (16:0) and stearic acids (18:1) are high degree of saturated fatty acids. Oleic (18:1n-9), arachidonic (20:4n-6),


419

linoleic acid (18:2n-6) are high degree of unsaturated fatty acids. Saturated oils are more stable and do not become rancid as quickly as unsaturated oils. However, unsaturated oils are smoother, more precious, less greasy, and better absorbed by the skin. Both form of natural oils are more difficult to build into emulsions, are unsoluble in alcohol (except castor oil) and require antioxidants (e.g. vitamin E or C) to prevent rancidity [4,5,6].

Fig.1: Glycerol (red) + 3 fatty acid chains (blue) =Triglyceride (natural oil) [4]

Although the scientists give most attention to the properties of fatty acid composition

of the vegetable oils, they give minus attention to the lipid-soluble components which have significant contribution to the nutritional properties of these oils [7].

Avocado oil obtained from the fresh fruit. Due to its stability and high level of vitamin E, the use of avocado oils in the cosmetic industry is a state of art. The volume of avocado oil is nearly 2000 tones/year. The major advantages in respect to skin care of the avocado oil are its softening, soothing and notable absorption. Avocado oil involves at least 60% of the mono-unsaturated and 10% poly-unsaturated fatty acid. The composition of the fatty acids in avocado are palmitic and stearic as a saturated, palmitoleic and oleic as mono-unsaturated and linolenic and linoleic as poly-unsaturated. There are many extraction methods of the avocado oil; most popular one in this century is cold pressing method. [8]

Grapes seed oil is generally used in food and cosmetics areas, because it includes fatty acid and bioactive components. Grapes seed oil is commonly extracted from side product press cake of the juice and wine production. There are several technique for extraction oil from seeds like cold-pressing, hot-pressing, solvent extraction, super critical fluid extraction with CO2. The last technique has advantage for enriching α-tocopherol, but only a few manufacturers used this technique due to the cost. This oil is rich in linoleic acid, plant steols, tocopherol and provitamin A. Grapes seed oil was classified in the polyunsaturated nutritional class. This oil has several subclasses, based on the content of linoleic, α-linolenic and monounsaturated fatty acid [6].

Sesame oil is the first oil known and consumed by human being. Sesame seed includes oil about %50, protein about %25, mineral ash, crude fiber, oxalates, soluble carbohydrates and phytate. Sesame oil has more resistance to oxidation than the other vegetable oils. Sesame oil is used in various areas like drugs, perfumes, cosmetics, creams, lubricants, insecticides and fungicides. Sesame oil can cause allergic problems when it use in cosmetic products. Sesame oil can be extracted by cold press technique and solvent extracted technique to get crude oil. Crude (unrefined) sesame oil contains high level free faty acids. Sometimes crude sesame oils are refined (neutralization, acid bleaching and deodorization). Refined oil properties are different from crude oil. Sesame oils involve triacylglycrols (90%), diacylglycrols, free fatty acids and phospholipids. The fatty acid is composed of palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid. In sesame seed oils saturated fatty acids are higher level than tri- and di-acylglycrols [9, 10, 11].

Wheat germ oil is a product obtained from germ part of the wheat. The wheat consists of endosperm (81-84%), bran (14-16%) and germ (2-3%). According to the reports brand and germ components have nutritional and health benefits. Wheat germ oil is used generally for nutritional due to its high level of vitamin E content. This oil can be use in wide range of applications like cosmetics, toiletries and pharmaceuticals. The concentration range of wheat germ oil in cosmetic products is 0,1-50%. Wheat germ oil can be extracted via some


420

techniques like mechanical expelling, organic solvent extraction and super critical fluid extraction with CO2. Solvent extracted wheat germ oil is more stable than the oil which is extracted mechanically, due to its lower lipid content. The wheat germ contains about 15% oil. The fatty acid composition is varied based on the wheat type, growth conditions, extraction method and storage conditions. Wheat germ consists of unsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acid [12]. Carrot seed oil can be extracted via cold press or solvent extraction. Carrot seed oil contains oleic acid, linoleic acid and palmitic acid. Carrot seed oil has not so good oxidative stability. Monounsaturated fatty acid fraction is 82%, polyunsaturated fatty acid fraction is 13% and total saturated fatty acid is 4,6% in carrot seed oils [13].

There are two methods for extraction of argania oil; one of them is the traditional method which is carried out by crushing roasted kernels and then kneading into paste or dough with hot water and then pressed by hand, the other is half-industrialized or semiautomatic method which is carried out by mechanical cold-pressed without water addition. The oil produced using traditional method includes less linoleic and oleic acids than the oil produced half- industrialized method. The argania oil includes polyphenols as an antioxidant and minor component such as sterols, carotenoids, xanthophylls, and squalene for nutrition and health [14].

Jojoba oil can be produced by solvent extraction method. It is used generally in the cosmetic industry. Jojoba oil contains 38:2, 40:2, 42:2, 44:2 and 46:2 wax esters and stearic acids, Eicosenoic acid (20:1), Erucic acid (22:1) and Nervonic Acid (24:1) fatty acids. The structure of jojoba oil is such that it acts as a natural skin-softener. Consequently, jojoba oil is incorporated into many personal care formulations. Some chemical modification of the oil has occurred and has been geared toward polyunsaturated derivatives via bromination followed by dehydrohalogenation to produce alkynes and tetraene intermediates [15].

Almonds are considered to be a great source of proteins, dietary fibre, health-promoting unsaturated fatty acids, vitamin E, other vitamins, minerals; they are also low in saturated fats, and contain no cholesterol. The main monounsaturated fatty acid was oleic acid with substantial levels of palmitoleic acid present in the macadamia nut. The main polyunsaturated fatty acids present were linoleic acid and linolenic acid. alpha-Tocopherol was the most prevalent tocopherol except in walnuts [16, 17].

Natural oils have been used in cosmetic products and some cosmetic products could be used as UV protection materials. UV light is part of the light spectrum emitted by the sun. Below is a diagram that shows the light spectrum & the bands it is divided into. You will notice that the Ultra Violet band is broken into three catorgories. UVA, UVB & UVC.

Fig.2: electromagnetic spectrum [18]

Experimental

In this study we used 10 types of healthy promoting oils which are argania, almond, apricot seed, jojoba, wheat germ, sesame seed, avocado, cocoa, carrot and grapes seed oils. The properties of these oils are given in the table 1. We studied UV transmission properties, FT-IR analysis based on predominant molecular structure and DSC analysis for thermal behavior of these different 10 natural oils.


421

DSC Analysis Perkin Elmer Sapphire II model Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) having heat flux method were used Test Condition Initial temperature: 30 °C, Purge gaseous : nitrogen, Heating rate : 10 °C /min, Heating type : first heating (as-received) Final temperature: 550 °C Sample mass : approximately 5 mg, Sample pan : open aluminum pan FT-IR Analysis

Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra obtained by using Perkin Elmer -Spectrum 2000 Explorer model device with Pike- MIRacle model ATR auxiliaries. The spectra were taken between 4000–650 cm-1 wave numbers. UV Analysis

UV spectra obtained by using Varian Cary 5000 UV-VIS-NIR Spectrophotometer with GTA Tubes auxiliaries. The spectra were taken between 800–180 nm in transmission mode. The scan rate was 600 nm/min and data interval was 5.0 nm

Table 1: The properties of oils. Oil Name Manufacturer Production Method Ingredient Production date Serial Number Argania BHS group Cold press %100 01/2012 0001 Almond Gençay Cold press %100 02/2012 01 Apricot Seed Kardelen Cold press %100 05/2011 008 Jojoba Kardelen Cold press %100 09/2011 014 Wheat Germ Kardelen Cold press %100 02/2011 013 Sesame Seed Gençay Cold press %100 12/2011 01 Avocado Kardelen Cold press %100 06/2011 013 Cocoa Kardelen Cold press %100 09/2011 013 Carrot Kardelen Extraction %100 08/2011 012 Grape Seed Kardelen Cold press %100 09/2011 010 Result and discussion

According to FT-IR spectra the dominant molecular structure of all oils, except avocado and cocoa oil, are similar. There is also similarity between FT-IR spectra of avocado and cocoa oils. As seen from figure 3, there are five main differences between avocado and cocoa oils, and the others. One of them is the broad peak located at 3300 cm-1 which is related -OH- group only on the spectra of avocado and cocoa oils, two of them are the narrow peak located at 1738 cm-1 which is related -C=O- group and 718 cm-1 which is related –CH2-CH2-CH2- chain group only on the spectra of argania, almond, apricot seed, jojoba, wheat germ, sesame seed, carrot and grapes seed oils, the fourth one is peaks between 1136-802 cm-1 only on the spectra of avocado and cocoa oils and the last one is peaks between 1237-1099 cm-1 only on the spectra of argania, almond, apricot seed, jojoba, wheat germ, sesame seed, carrot and grapes seed oils.


422

Figure 3: FT-IR spectra of all oils:

From top to bottom: 1. spectrum: argania oil, 2.spectrum: avocado oil, 3. spectrum:

almond oil, 4. spectrum: wheat germ oil, 5. spectrum: carrot oil, 6. spectrum: jojoba oil, 7. spectrum: cocoa oil, 8. spectrum: apricot seed oil, 9. spectrum: sesame seed oil, 10. spectrum: grapes seed oil

The peaks located at 2923 cm-1 and 2850 cm-1 which are related -CH2- group are weak on the spectra of avocado and cocoa oils, but that peaks are strong on the spectra of the other rest oils. Although the peak at 1459 cm-1 on the all oils’ spectra except avocado and cocoa oils was strong which is belongs to -CH2- and the peak related to –CH3- was weak. On the spectra of avocado and cocoa oils between 1455 -1233 cm-1, a number of weak peak combination and overtone bands were occurred. The intensity of -CH2- and -CH3- group frequencies were decreased by the group of -OH- frequency in the region of 1455 -1233 cm-1 a bands. Spectra of all oils involve strong peaks at 1240-1030 cm-1 which are related to -C-O-C- group. It was supposed that the peaks between 991-802 cm-1 on the spectra of avocado and cocoa oils are related to carboxylic acid. The carboxylic acid group peaks was not observed from spectra of the other rest oils like the spectra of avocado and cocoa oils. There were only very weak peaks.

l k

4000.0 3000 2000 1500 1000 600.0cm-1

%T


423

Figure 4: FT-IR spectra of avocado and cocoa oils

Figure 5: FT-IR spectra of all oils except avocado and cocoa oils

3000 2000 1500 1000 600.0cm-1

3300.00,65.72

2972.22,76.962922.22,78.92

2872.22,79.41

1036.11,33.08

991.66,66.06

922.22,63.19

833.33,67.89

802.77,79.41

1136.11,66.89

1075.00,62.04

1455.55,80.771375.00,76.02

1330.55,80.00

1286.11,80.98

1233.33,83.74

3000 2000 1500 1000 600.0cm-1

3002.81,93.99

2923.94,62.68

2850.70,73.13

1738.02,65.27

1459.15,83.90

1375.00,89.76

1156.25,70.70

1237.50,84.41

1093.75,80.70

718.75,81.19


424

Figure 6: DSC thermograms of oils:

From top to bottom: 1. thermogram: avocado oil, 2.thermogram: cocoa oil

According to DSC thermogram, there are two main differences between the thermogram of avocado and cocoa oils, and the thermogram of the others rest. First one is the broad endothermic peak located between 70-180 0C which is related to loss of low molecular weight substances (water or solvent), only on the spectra of avocado and cocoa oils. The other is the endothermic narrow peak combination located 400-480 0C which is related to melting crystalline region of molecular chain, only on the spectra of argania, almond, apricot seed, jojoba, wheat, sesame, carrot and grapes seed oils. Endothermic peak combination shows that there is a different molecular chain length in the oil, the crystal structure length is short and crystallinite size distribution looks like a single crystal.

Figure 7: DSC thermogram of oils


425

From top to bottom: 1. thermogram: apricot seed oil, 2. thermogram: sesame oil, 3. thermogram: jojoba oil, 4. thermogram: grapes seed oil, 5. thermogram: carrot oil, 6. thermogram: wheat oil, 7. thermogram: almond oil, 8. thermogram: argania oil

All oils absorb UVB and UVC light. Because of that transmission ratio of this light is under %1. UVB and UVC could not arrive to earth surface. They are absorbed by stratospheric ozone and cloud. Only UVA reach to the earth. UVA can enter through glass and skin surface to epidermis. This light causes ageing and being cancer of the skin. Because of that UV protection properties of material directly related to UVA absorption ratio [19].

Figure 8: Light Transmission Ratios of oils at visible area (700-400 nm)

Cocoa oil absorbs all visible light after 540 nm wave length. Between 540-700 nm

wave lengths, the absorption rate increase by decreasing wave length. Minimum absorption rate is 50% occurred at 700 nm. About 680 nm the spectra of grape seed, wheat germ, sesame seed and almond involve a peak. The peak dept which is related to absorption level was high at grape seed, sesame seed, almond and wheat germ respectively. About this wave length, these oils absorb more light than that they absorb at the other regions. At 680 nm the most absorption rate belongs to grapes seed oil, about 90%. The other oils did not absorb meaningfully visible light until the wave length of 520 nm. After 520 nm all oils begin to absorb light in different levels. Grapes seed and wheat germ oils absorb nearly all visible light after 500 nm. The ratio of absorption of the other oils increase, by decreasing wave length of light after 500 nm. Absorption of light rate change from 45% to 5% for avocado, argania, carrot, jojoba, sesame seed, apricot seed and almond respectively (figure 8)


426

Figure 9: Light Transmission Ratios of oils at UVA area (400-320 nm)

Except sesame seed, all oils absorb all UVA light after 345 weave length. Sesame oil

absorbs all UV light after 320 nm which is end of the UVA light. The absorption rate of all oils was altered by changing wave length. Decreasing wave length leads to an increase in the UVA absorption ratio. Grapes seed and cocoa oils absorb all UVA light. Although almond, wheat germ and apricot seed oil absorb all UVA before 350 nm wave length, they absorb UVA light nearly 95% after this wave length (figure 9). The UV protection property of grapes seed and cocoa is very well. Protection of wheat germ, almond and apricot seed oils to UVA is well respectively.

Figure 10: Light Transmission Ratios of oils at IR area (700-800 nm)

Cocoa oil absorbs more IR light than others. It absorbs about 50% of IR light. Sesame

seed, jojoba and almond oils do not absorb IR light. Absorption of IR rate change from 7% to 25% for carrot, apricot seed, wheat germ, argania, avocado and grapes seed respectively. Except grapes seed and cocoa oils the absorption rate of IR of other oils do not change according to IR wave length (figure 10).


427

Conclusion The dominant molecular structure of all these oils are similar each other except

avocado and cocoa oils. The molecular structure of these two oils is looks like each other. This difference can be observed from DSC thermogram too. Unlike cocoa and avocado oils, the other oils does not include -OH- group. Because of this group, DSC thermograms of these two oils involve a big broadly peak. From DSC thermograms it was easily seen that there was no decomposition, melting and loss of volatile matter of all oils except avocado and cocoa oils under inert atmosphere before 400 0C. Grapes seed, cocoa, wheat germ, apricot seed and almond oils can be used as a UV protection agent. Due to the color and thermal behavior using cocoa oil may be not suitable. But the grape seed, wheat germ, apricot seed and almond oils can be used. The thermal behavior of these oils also permits using these oils in fiber production. The conventional thermoplastic synthetic fiber like polyamide, polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, etc. production are made under 400 0C. Because of that, if these oils can be added to extruder under inert condition, inherently UV production yarn could be produced. This type of UV protection may have more advantages than UV protection textile which is produced by finishing. Inherently UV protection property of textiles is more durable than UV protection property gained by finishing. Beside the UV protection properties, many benefits may be obtained by using these oils like moistening, vitamin emitted and the other healthy related conditions. Determination of this state a lot of work must be carried out. Cacao and grapes seed oils can be used also in the smart textiles for the use of the protection against hot atmosphere condition due to IR light absorption properties. This type of application may be used for production of hats and blouses. References: Arantegui, J. P., Ribechini E., Cepria, G. ´, Degano, I., Colombini, M. P., Peralta, J. P., Palomar, S. O., Colorants and oils in Roman make-ups–an eye witness account, Trends in Analytical Chemistry. 2009, Vol. 28, No. 8. Tian, H., Zhang, H., Zhan , P. and Tian, F., Composition and antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of white apricot almond (Amygdalus communis L.) oil. Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. 2011, 113, 1138–1144. Anwar, F., Latif, S., Ashraf, M., Analytical characterization of hemp (Cannabis sativa) seed oil from different agroecologicalzones of Pakistan. J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc. 2006, 83, 323-329. “Oils & Waxes Used in Cosmetics”, www.makingcosmetics.com Dubois, V., Breton, S., Linder, M., Fanni, J., Parmentier, M., Fatty Acid Profiles of 80 Vegetable oils with regard to their nutritional potential. Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. 109, 2007, 710–732 Woolf, A., at all, Berry seed and grape seed oils in gourmet and healthy promoting specialty oils. (Ed. Moreau, R.A. and Eldin, A.K.), 2009, 73-76. Moreau, R.A. and Eldin, A.K., Introduction in gourmet and healthy promoting specialty oils (Ed. Moreau, R.A. and Eldin, A.K.). AOCS, USA 2009, 5-10. Woolf, A., at all, Avocado oil in gourmet and healthy promoting specialty oils (Ed. Moreau, R.A. and Eldin, A.K.), AOCS, USA, 2009, 73-76. Johnson, L.A., Suleiman, T.M. and Lusas, E.W., Sesame protein: A review and prospectus, Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society, 1979, Volume 56, Number 3, 463-468. Moazzami, A. and Eldin, A.K., Sesame seed oil in gourmet and healthy promoting specialty oils (Ed. Moreau, R.A. and Eldin, A.K.), AOCS, USA, 2009, p.267-275. Pecquet, C., Leynadier, F. and Saiag, P., Immediate hypersensitivity to sesame in foods and cosmetics, Contact Dermatitis 1998, 39, 313. Dunford, N.T., Wheat germ oil in gourmet and healthy promoting specialty oils (Ed. Moreau, R.A. and Eldin, A.K.), AOCS, USA, 2009, 359-365.


428

Yu L. and Hao, J., Parsley, Carrot and onion seed oils in gourmet and healthy promoting specialty oils (Ed. Moreau, R.A. and Eldin, A.K.), AOCS, USA, 2009, p.484-486. Marfil, R., at all, Determination of polyphenols, tocopherols, and antioxidant capacity in virgin argan oil (Argania spinosa, Skeels), Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. 2011, 113, 886–893 Harry-O’kurua, R. E., Mohamed, A., Abbott, T. P., Synthesis and characterization of tetrahydroxyjojoba wax and ferulates of jojoba oil, Industrial Crops and Products 22, 2005, 125–133. Gallier, S., Gordon, K.C., Singh, H., Chemical and structural characterisation of almond oil bodies and bovine milk fat globules, Food Chemistry 132, 2012, 1996–2006 Maguire, L.S ., O'Sullivan, S.M., Galvin, K., O'Connor, T.P., O'Brien, N.M., Fatty acid profile, tocopherol, squalene and phytosterol content of walnuts, almonds, peanuts, hazelnuts and the macadamia nut, International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition, 55(3), 171–178. .http://www.homesolariums.com.au/ Perincek, S. D. and et all, Ultraviolet technology . Tekstil ve Konfeksiyon, 2007, 4, 219


429

CONSTRUCT VALIDITY OF THE BATTERY OF DEVELOPMENTAL ASSESSMENT (BDA): A MODEL TOOL

FOR LEBANON

Huda Husseini Bibi, Ed.D, Prof. Chairperson of Education Department

Lebanese International University (LIU) Founder and President of:Middle East Counseling & Development Centre (IRSHAD)

The Lebanese Association of Rehabilitation & Development (TAAHEEL)

Abstract

This study examines the construct validity of the Battery of Developmental Assessment (BDA) - the first comprehensive psycho educational assessment tool designed for students with special Needs in Lebanon and the Arab World. It consists of culture - fair tests, subtests and hands-on activities that help teachers and counselors identify students who are at risk of scholastic delay, and those who perform above average. More importantly, educators would be trained in assessing students, and in proposing suitable individual educational plans. The National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) has sponsored the study on construct validity of 27 tests and subtests of the BDA. Findings suggested better solutions for only 6, and items have been revised accordingly. The BDA is now considered a standardized culturally fair assessment tool for differently able students in Lebanon, and other Arab Countries.

Keywords: Battery of developmental assessment (BDA), construct validity Introduction

The Battery of Developmental Assessment (BDA) is the first comprehensive psycho-educational assessment tool designed for students with special Needs in Lebanon. The premise on which the BDA is based upon is the perpetual integration of assessment, with counseling and instruction. It consists of culture - fair tests, subtests and hands-on activities that help teachers and counselors; identify students who are at risk of scholastic delay, and those who perform above average. More importantly, educators would be trained in assessing students, and in proposing suitable individual educational plans.

The BDA is considered a credible criterion - referenced descriptive diagnostic tool that facilitates the decision-making process, as it is easy to administer and score. God has given man the mind, the will, the freedom to make choices, as well as the abilities to learn, work and develop. By instinct, man is capable of educating himself, searching for the truth, and developing his various talents and skills (Khabazerli, 1986).

Recent research, in the field of educational psychology, has revealed that many Students with Special Needs fail in school, are unable to solve their own personal problems, and experience difficulties in selecting appropriate methods to direct their attitudes and behaviors (Metzer, 1992). Whereas some others display outstanding academic performance, that calls for attention and another type of intervention. For this, the Battery of Developmental Assessment (BDA) has been constructed to provide the educators, in Arab countries, with a culture-fair assessment tool that would help them identify those children, make appropriate decisions, design IEP’s, and intervene accordingly. It is expected that those two distinctive groups of students need professional help to develop their various skills and abilities. They need counseling to learn how to meet their


430

developmental needs, and how to interact positively with classmates, teachers and society. The main objective is to help them adjust to the general curriculum, and consequently not only to succeed in school, but to develop to the optimal level of their potentialities. The BDA provides teachers with guidelines and strategies that are necessary to help them overcome their various academic and / or behavioral problems. In addition, assist them in designing, revising, evaluating, and modifying curriculum content.

Professional observations and research reviews reveal that schools in Lebanon and the Arab World need the BDA (Husseini-Bibi, 2005). More than two thirds of the assessment tools used for the purpose of screening, identification, and diagnosis do not possess appropriate psychometric specifications for reliable and valid measurements. The assessment tools that have been prepared by non-Arab specialists are considered culturally biased and therefore must not be used in accordance with the developmental changes of children with special needs. Unfortunately, many foreign assessment tools are now being used. Test users buy them, and use them over a short period of time. These foreign assessment tools need to be continuously revised and reedited (Azayat, 1998). For this, it was necessary to develop the Lebanese Version of the BDA to attend to the various needs of the Lebanese students, and later on adjusted for other Arab c During the last two decades, only few Arab countries have become interested in Special Education Programs. They have established special schools and centers for children with special needs. They have developed training programs that aim at improving teachers’ performance, as well as undergraduate and graduate programs in the fields of counseling and special education. These countries have built strong relationships and cooperation among ministries such as: the Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Higher Education, as well as government and non - government organizations (Mur, G. & Husseini-Bibi, H., 1997).

Here it is important to note Herbert’s (2005) broader view of the way in which disabilities and disorders are assessed and formulated for planned individual and group interventions. The formulation of problems associated with a child’s development is generally a multi-agency plan of action or an individual treatment intervention. It might also be an expert assessment for the social, health or educational services. More specifically, the way a formulation is conceptualized and the consequent selection of data describing the child’s problem vary according to its nature, purpose, and the theoretical assumptions of the professional. There is no one right way of arriving at a remedial, preventive, or treatment program.

Herbert (2005) added that effective treatments depend upon reliable diagnosis. The term “diagnosis” has been the source of some intellectual difficulties for developmental theorists, psychologists and psychiatrists in their desire to work within a scientific and medical framework. Research over many decades, firmly rooted in scientific philosophy and methodology, has been built on these skills and generated an impressive array of rational treatments which have reduced human suffering. Ideally, a diagnosis would give rise to the following: . Reliable descriptive criteria: the what? or the problem question. . Clear causal theory: the why has the problem come about question? . Appropriate or validated interventions: the how do I help question.

In the light of this, the BDA has been developed as an assessment tool that leads the practitioner or psycho – educator, to a general casework formulation. Among the criteria used in this formulation, are those related to the child’s developmental needs: First, defining the learning problems by focusing on three main questions: What did the student learn? How does the student learn? And why do some students fail or excel? Second, diagnosing and measuring the child’s various stages of development, i.e. cognitive, psychological and educational, which allow the assessor to select appropriate individual educational plans meeting the students’ needs.


431

Third, identifying the type of assistance required in designing appropriate teaching strategies, and consequently modifying the curriculum accordingly (Vernon, 1993). Fulfilling all these desiderata is somewhat rare in child development work and psychiatry. Early detection of disorders is crucial for both children and their families. Undoubtedly, the younger the age at which children with physical, intellectual, emotional, or social difficulties are identified, the more likely it is that appropriate interventions can be planned to enable them to develop their independence and the potential to participate in everyday life. It often proves difficult to at an early stage to distinguish between typical and atypical development. The relationship between them is far from simple or dichotomous. In addition, diagnosis could be considered the ‘automatic generator’ of a plan of management. Formulation encompasses more information than a restrictive diagnosis. Many signs of atypical development are the manifestations of physical, behavioral, cognitive and emotional attributes common to all children. Their quality of being dysfunctional lies in their inappropriate intensity, pervasiveness, frequency and persistence (Herbert, 2005). The BDA is a dynamic tool that views development as a continuous process. Assessment and counseling, and assessment and teaching interventions, are considered the two continuous processes that go hand and hand. The BDA identifies students’ positive traits and abilities, and trains assessors to develop decision-making and problem solving skills. In addition, the BDA focuses on three major developmental domains: the cognitive, the psychological and the academic domains.

The BDA follows a developmental model of assessment. It is a new approach designed for the purpose of evaluating the students’ abilities, and needs during their various developmental stages. More specifically, it highlights the developmental needs of students such as: readiness, cognitive abilities, psychological needs, and academic performance. Overton (2000) stated that by following a developmental model, the educator would be capable of preventing specific learning difficulties and psychological problems from occurring. In addition, the model could be helpful in providing counseling services to students facing difficulties with social, psychological and academic adjustments. The BDA could be perceived as a clinical assessment tool. As defined by Simonsson and Rosenthal (2001), the term ‘clinical assessment’ has a broader meaning which encompasses the use of varied procedures and multiple activities, to evaluate and record developmental and psychological characteristics. The BDA meets these characteristics: Screening Testing Observing Interviewing Formulating Planning Monitoring progress Evaluating outcomes

The rationale of this approach is based on recognition that the idiosyncratic and complex nature of problems of children with disabilities and chronic conditions requires methods that are flexible and comprehensive to an extent not possible with standardized tests. The BDA has been developed to meet the norms of the Lebanese student populations. Since local research has revealed that the number of students with special needs is increasing, it was necessary to develop a practical battery of assessment that consists of tests, subtests, and checklists, that identify the abilities of those students, discover their various needs, and provide appropriate Individual Educational Plans (IEP), and consequently intervene appropriately (Husseini-Bibi, 2005).

The BDA differs from most assessment tools in that it focuses on qualitative rather than quantitative data. Most of the subtests are descriptive, and their credibility does not


432

depend on raw scores or data. These descriptive measures aim at understanding the child from a developmental perspective.

Children with Special Needs deviate from the normal curve in one or more of the following developmental domains: cognitive, linguistic, emotional, and sensory – motor. Some could be experiencing some learning difficulties, sensory/ motor deficits, auditory or visual perception problems, problems with adaptive behavior, or suffer from speech and language disorders, which may lead to school delay (Alroosan, 2000), while others may be experiencing frustration and boredom in classrooms, as the result of the presence of a certain gift or talent.

The BDA tests and subtests are varied, easy to administer, and developed to suit the needs of diverse Arab populations and cultures, allowing more time for the child to respond and interact. The child is viewed as a partner and an active participant in the assessment process, as well as in the counseling process. The BDA does not focus solely on the child’s weaknesses and problems, but helps in identifying strengths and positive traits as well. Moreover, it links assessment to learning, providing the educator with clues and directions in accommodating curriculum content, and in designing suitable teaching strategies.

The BDA is made up of three parts: The first part consists of 10 readiness and ability tests and subtests measuring multiple abilities, such as general knowledge, logical thinking, memory, sensory, motor, visual, and linguistic skills (Mashmoush, 1993). The second part focuses on the developmental needs that identify the degree of psychological health of children, specifically those children with special needs, as environment plays a major role in the development of an individual’s well being (Azayat, 1998). Finally, the third part consists of academic achievement tests of two core subject matter (Arabic and Math), that are curriculum based referenced tests (Azoyoud & Ulayan, 1998). Sample and BDA administration

Ten Special Educators were selected to be trained to become BDA Certified, Licensed and qualified to administer the BDA. The Lebanese Association for Rehabilitation and Development provided a sample of 400 students with special needs. Over a one year period the students were BDA assessed. The Record Forms of the students consisted of charts, checklists and tables of tests, and were collected and compiled. These Record Forms were analysed through the SPSS system for the purpose of exploring the construct validity of the BDA. 27 BDA Tests and subtests selected for Construct Validity Hyperactivity Attention Deficit Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Language – Receptive Language - Expressive Thinking - Memory Thinking - Sorting Thinking – Application Thinking – Composition General knowledge Math and Logic – Initial Math Math and Logic – Mathematical Skills Math and Logic – Logic Math and Logic – Problem solving Sensori Motor – Gross motor


433

Sensori Motor – Fine Motor Visual Perception Visual Discrimination Spatial Discrimination Picture and Movement Auditory Perception Giftedness Dyscalculia Dyslexia Dysorthographia Academic Arabic Tests Academic Math Tests Findings: Some items in some tests and subtests were not valid. Therefore the researcher recommended a better solution wherever it was appropriate; otherwise the items were found valid. BETTER SOLUTION FOR HYPERACTIVITY To use less items than 23 items where a clear cut solution in which 1, 2, 3, 4, and 8 measure Hyperactivity Indicators and 9, 11, 12 and 13 measure Attention Deficit (2), while 16, 17, 20 and 22 measure Attention Deficit Hyperactivity (3). BETTER SOLUTION FOR LANGUAGE TEST. It is shown that Reception 1, and Reception 2 measure one dimension while the rest (7 items) measure the second dimension (Expression). BETTER SOLUTION FOR Thinking Test: It can be seen that Application and Sorting are measuring the same thing while memory measures two different dimensions BETTER SOLUTION FOR Math and Logic Test: It Measures four dimensions that are modified from the original BETTER SOLUTION FOR FINE SENSORI MOTOR TEST: If we delete four items 8, 15, 2 and 11 we get a better four dimensions solution. BETTER SOLUTION FOR VISUAL PERCEPTION TEST: After deleting items 8 and 9 we received a better solution with three different dimensions. Conclusion The BDA has been proved to be a culturally fair test, and therefore is recommended to be used in Lebanon and any population that speaks Arabic. The BDA is not a translation of an existing instrument, but has been constructed from scratch in Arabic, based on review of literature. It is the first time in which such an instrument has been validated. Recommendation It is recommended to conduct workshops to discuss results of findings and revise the BDA accordingly, to be implemented in Lebanon and other Arab countries. References: Alroosan, F.(1996). Methods of assessment and diagnosis in special education. Dar Al fikr, Amman. Azayat, F.(1998). Learning difficulties: theory, diagnosis and therapy. Cognitive Psychological Series 4,Education Department, Almansoura University, Egypt. Azoyoud, N.F& Ulayan, H.A.(1998). Principles of educational tests and measurements. Dar Alfikr, Amman. Ginter, E.J., & Glauser. (2004). Assessment and diagnosis: the developmental


434

perspective and its implications. In R.R. Erk (Ed), Counseling treatment for children and adolescents with DSM-IV- TR disorders (pp. 2-36). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Herbert, M. (2005). Developmental problems of childhood and adolescence: prevention, treatment and training. Blackwell Publishing, Library of Congress. Husseini Bibi, H. (2011). Construct Validity of the Battery of Developmental Assessment BDA): A Model Tool for Lebanon. Conseil National De La Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Beirut, Lebanon Husseini Bibi, H. (2005). Battery of developmental assessment (BDA): an assessment kit with tools to describe abilities, academic skills, and psychological health of Arab children. Irshad, Beirut & Dar Okaz, Jeddah. Kamphaus, R.W., & Frick, P.J. (1996). Clinical assessment of child and adolescent personality and behavior. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Khabazerli, R.S.(1986). Learning and spirituality. Educational Research, Um Alqura University, Ministry of Higher Education, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Mashmoush, S.M., Khieri, M. Kh. & Mehni M.A. (1985). Educational assessment. Dar Okaz, Riyad. Meltzer, L.J. (1993). Strategy assessment and instruction for students with learning disability: TX: Theory to practice. Mur, G.& Husseini - Bibi, H. (1997). Learning difficulties. Beirut: World Rehabilitation Fund. Overton, T.(2000). Assessment in special education. NJ: Merrill, Prentice Hall. Semrud – Clikeman, M.(1995). Child and adolescent therapy. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Simeonsson, R.L. & Rosenthal, S.L. (2001). Psychological and developmental assessment: Children with disabilities and chronic conditions. New York: Guilford Press. Vernon, A.(1993). Developmental assessment and intervention with children and Adolescents. University of Northern Iowa, ACA, Alexandria, VA. Vernon, A. & Clement, R. (2005). Assessment and intervention with children and adolescents: developmental and multicultural approaches. ACA, Alexandria, VA.


435

EFFECT OF MIXING ZNO:TIO2 NANOPARTICLES IN P3HT:PCBM SOLAR CELLS

S.Ali A. Zareen

Dept. of NREM, University of Kurdistan, Erbil, Iraq M. Ikram

Solar Application Lab, Department of Physics, G. C . University Lahore Pakistan R. Murray

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware, USA A. Hussain

Pakistan Council of Renewable Energy Technologies Islamabad, Pakistan S. Ismat Shah

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Delaware, USA

Abstract

In this study, we examine the effect of various ratios of TiO2 and ZnO nanoparticles in the active layer of organic solar cells (OSC). The organic polymers used in active layer are poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and acceptor phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM). The active layer blend was prepared in chlorobenzene using various amount of metal oxides and PCBM, while keeping the constant ratio of P3HT. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the devices is found to decrease in presence of metal oxides in the blend of active layer of the devices. The PCE dropped from 1.43% to 1.29 %. The PCE decreased due to poor distribution of inorganic metal oxides in the active layer of the device, due to significant difference size of nano particles of the metal oxides. The mixing in active layer is found to decrease series resistance (Rs) of the devices and increasing fill factor (FF), but the Jsc is found to decrease probably due to increase in recombination current origionating from poor mixing of metal oxides in the active layer. The absorption and surface roughness increased with addition of the metal oxides in the active layer of the devices. The performances of the devices depend upon the optimun ratios of metal oxides with P3HT and PCBM.

Keywords: P3HT, PCBM, TiO2, ZnO Introduction A technology that has become a cheap renewable energy source is solar cells based on polymers. Many recent studies and detailed studies have documented so far most promising results [1-6]. Copper phthalocyanine was used as electron donor (p-type) material, in the first solar cell which was designed by Tang while for electron donor (n-type) material perylene derivative has been used [7]. In organic semiconductors the efficiency of planar heterojunction devices is limited due to low exciton diffusion lengths which is usually below 20nm [8]. So the exciton generated at a distance of more than 20 nm form the interface (between p and n type materials) will not contribute to charge generation [9]. Because of this downside, the power conversion efficiency of planar heterojunction devices lie in the range of 1.0 to 1.5% [10].

With the advent of bulk heterojunction concept revolutionary breakthrough occurred [11]. According to bulk heterojunction concept, p and n type materials are thoroughly mixed and organized on Nano scale to form three-dimensional interpenetrating networks which have


436

ability to generate charge and transport them efficiently. By amalgamation of inorganic semiconductor materials the performance of these devices can be increased to form hybrid organic-inorganic solar cells (HSC) [12]. Till now various n-type semiconductor oxides have been applied such as TiO2, ZnO [13], SnO2, and Nb2O5 [14]. These oxides gives high stability to photo corrosion can absorb the UV [15] and have a large band gap. In HSC the light harvesting conjugated polymer acts as the hole transporter while the semiconductor oxides can be used as an electron acceptor to increase the electron mobility [16]. The blends of polymer and metal oxide can be formed by the interaction of semiconductor oxide and conjugated polymer [17]. Solar cells prepared from hybrids of polymers and inorganic nanoparticles of metal oxide have fascinated extensive importance due to their light weight and without vacuum processing by spray deposition on flexible substrates. Our work focus to explore the effect of metal oxide nanoparticles which has been added in the active layer with P3HT & PCBM due to excellent carrier mobility. Many metals oxide nanoparticles available for this purpose but the mostly used are ZnO & TiO2. However, the PCE of devices was improved by mixing the different ratios of ZnO& TiO2 nanoparticles with size (˂100nm) in the blend of active layer. We used different proportions of PCBM: ZnO: TiO2 while keeping the constant ratio of P3HT in the solvent of chlorobenzene. PCBM and TiO2: ZnO nanoparticles were used as an acceptor material with P3HT as donor. Experimental details Hybrid solar cells devices were fabricated by spin coating poly (3,4 polyethylene dioxythiophene polystyrenesulfonate) PEDOT:PSS polymer at 3000 rpm on ultrasonically cleaned Indium tin oxide (ITO) glass substrates with sheet resistance of 8-10 Ω/square). The samples were baked in N2 enviroment inside glovebox at 1300C for 10 minutes. The blend of P3HT:PCBM:ZnO:TiO2 of different weight ratios (1:0.7:0, 1:0.55:0.075:0.075, 1:0.35:0.175:0.175, 1:0.15:0.275:0.275 and 1:0:0.35:0.35) in 1.0 ml chlorobenzene (CB) solvent after stirring 12 hours at 40 0C was spuned on the top of PEDOT:PSS layer. The spuned film were sintered on the hotplate at 150 0C for 15 minutes in nitrogen environment. Finally, the Aluminium (Al) contact 100 nm film thickness were deposited using thermal evaporator. The aluminium contact area of 0.4 cm2 was maintained for all devices. The devices structure was ITO/PEDOT:PSS/( P3HT:PCBM:ZnO:TiO2)/LiF/Al. Results and discussion The Fig. 1 shows absorption spectra with the different ratios of the devices. The addition of metal oxides enhanced the absorption of the active layer of the devices and introduce red shift in the absorption spectra. The maximum absorption is achieved in the case of the ratio of 1:0.55:0.075:0.075. The absorption increased due to modification in band gaps of the donor material due to mixing of metal oxides. As we increased the amount of both metal oxides the absorption spectra shows decrease in absorption for ratios above the optimum value.

300 400 500 600 700 8000

2

Absor

bance

(Arb.

units)

Wavelength (nm)

1:0.7:0:01:0.55:0.075:0.075 1:0.35:0.175:0.175 1:0.15:0.275:0.275 1:0:0.35:0.35

P3HT:PCBM:ZnO:TiO2

Fig 1. Optical properties of different ratios of P3HT: PCBM: ZnO: TiO2 devices.


437

Fig. 2 shows the current density curves of the devices under dark and illumination condition. The addition of the metal oxides in the active layer of the devices shows decrease in the PCE with respect to pure P3HT:PCBM devices. The decrease in PCE is attributed different particle size of both metal oxide nanoparticles ZnO(˂100 nm) and TiO2 (10 nm) nanoparticles in the blend of P3HT and PCBM. The Table-1 shows improvement in FF and decrease in Jsc. The devices with active layer ratios of 1:0:0.35:0.35 showed low efficiency due to agglomeration of both TiO2 & ZnO nanoparticles probably due to lack of PCBM, the acceptor material also acting as surfactant for the metal oxides. This may result in damaging the interpenetrating network of charge carriers.

-1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5

-0.004

-0.002

0.000

0.002

0.004

0.006

0.008

0.010

0.012

1:0.35:0.175:0.175 Dark1:0.35:0.175:0.175 Light 1:0.55:0.075:0.075 Light1:0.7:0:0 Light

C urre

nt De

nsity

(mA/

cm2 )

Voltage (V)

P3HT:PCBM:ZnO:TiO2

Fig. 2. J-V characteristics of P3HT: PCBM: ZnO:TiO2 devices with different ratios.

External quantum efficiency (EQE) curves are shown in Fig. 3. Both the metal oxides

are an absorber of UV (200-400 nm). The presence of ZnO& TiO2 in P3HT: PCBM blend can be seen in the figure in the form of hump. The value of EQE of P3HT:PCBM device of 39 % in visible region at 480 while in the presence of both metal oxides in active layer of the device, its value is 26.8%. EQE decreased with increasing amount of metal oxides in the blend of active layer of the devices. The fact is attributed to increase in recombination current with mixing of metal oxides.

400 500 600 700 800

0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

1:0.7:0:0 1:0.35:0.175:0.175

EQE (

%)

Wavelength (nm)

(P3HT:PCBM:ZnO:TiO2)

Fig. 3. EQE curves of P3HT: PCBM: ZnO: TiO2 with different ratios (1:0.7:0:0, 25:9:4.50:4.50)


438

Fig. 4 shows the field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) images of different blend composition of P3HT: PCBM: ZnO:TiO2. Fig. 4a shows that the ZnO & TiO2 particles have poorly mixed in the blend of 1:0.35:0.075:0.075 and form chunks of metal oxides probably due to lack of PCBM in the blend. Whereas the ratio without PCBM 1:0.55:0.175:0.175 shows the rice grain trend type surface, also suggesting poor distribution of metal oxides as shown in Fig. 4b.

Fig. 4. FESEM images of devices with different ratios of P3HT: PCBM: ZnO: TiO2 1:0.35:0.175:0.175 a,

1:0.55:0.075:0.075 b.

The surface topography of the blend with different ratios 1:0.35:0.175:0.175 and 1:0.55:0.075:0.075 measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM) are shown in Fig. 5. Both Figures (5a& b) show surfaces are smooth and uniform with roughness values of 18.6 nm and 23 nm respectivly. The rough surface suggests a higher degree of agglomeration of metal oxides.

Fig. 5. AFM images of devices with different ratios of P3HT:PCBM:ZnO:TiO2 (1:0.35:0.175:0.175 a),

1:0.55:0.075:0.075 b) S:No P3HT:PCBM:TiO2:ZnO Voc(V) Jsc(mA) FF

(%) Rsh(ohm) Rs(ohm) PCE%

1 1:0.7:0 0.57 7.61 32.56 553 101 1.43 2 1:0.55:0.075:0.075 0.55 6.11 38.43 888 92 1.29 3 1:0.35:0.175:0.175 0.58 5.42 40.64 1780 82 1.28 4 1:0.15:0.275:0.275 0.52 3.08 36.09 794 103 0.57 5 1:0:0.35:0.35 0.24 0.02 37.11 75600 116 0.0013

Table 1. PV parameters obtained from J-V curves in Fig. 2 Conclusion In summary, We prepared hybrid solar cells with different ratios of PCBM, ZnO and TiO2 keeping constant ratio of P3HT in CB solvent. The results show that the mixing of various ratios of metal oxides in P3HT & PCBM blend introduce red shift in absorption spectra and improves the absorption in the visible region. The presence of metal oxides in the

4a 4b

5a 5b


439

blend of devices decreases Rs and increases FF but decreases Jsc and EQE. This result in low PCE of the devices. The irregular distributions of metal oxides in chlorobenzene with different particle size increases recombination current. The recombination current dominates Rs and decrease the PCE of the devices. The EQE results exhibited the presence of ZnO& TiO2 in UV region of the curve in the blend of P3HT: PCBM. The replacement of PCBM with suitable quantity of metal oxides enhanced the Voc and FF of the device. But the extra amount of both metal oxides in the blend damaged the performance of the device due to agglomeration of ZnO and TiO2. The FESEM images show formation of chunks with small amount of PCBM in the blend and rice grain trend in excess of PCBM. The AFM images show that films are smooth and uniform. The film roughness increase with increasing amount of metal oxides in the blend of active layer. Acknowledgement

The work is jointly supported by National Academy of Science (NAS), USA and Higher Education Comission (HEC) Pakistan. References: C. J. Brabec, N. S. Sariciftci, J. C. Hummelen, “Plastic solar cells,” Adv. Funct. Mater. 11, 2001, 15-26. H. Spanggaard, F. C. Krebs, “A brief history of the development of organic and polymeric photovoltaics,” Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells. 83, 2004, 125-146. K. M. Coakly, M. D. McHehee, “Conjugated Polymer Photovoltaic Cells,” Chem. Mater. 16, 2004, 4533-4542. H. Hoppe, N. S. Sariciftci, “Organic solar cells: an overview,” J. Mater. Res. 19, 2004, 1924- Special Issue: The Development of Organic and Polymer Photovoltaics. Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells .83, 2004, 2-3. Special Issue: Organic-Based Photovoltaics. MRS Bull. 30, 2005, 1. M. Theander, A. Yartsev, D. Zigmantas, V. Sundstrom, W. Mammo, M. R. Andersson, O. Inganas, “Photoluminescence quenching at a polythiophene/C-60 heterojunction,” Phys. Rev. B. 61, 2000, 12957-12963. D. E. Markow, C. Tanase, P. W. M. Bloom, J. Wildeman, “Organic semiconductor magnetic characteristics of the photoelectric effect and interface,”Phys. Rev. B, 72, 2005, 045217. D. E. Markov, E. Amsterdam, P. W. M. Bloom, et al., J. “Accurate measurement of the exciton diffusion length in a conjugated polymer using a heterostructure with a side-chain cross-linked fullerene layer” Phys. Chem. A, 109, 2005, 5266-5274. D. Wohrle, D. Meissner, “Organic solar cells,”Adv, Mater., 3, 1991, 129-138. G. Yu, J. Gao, J. C. Hummelen, et al. “ Polymer photovoltaic cells: enhanced efficiencies via a network of internal donor-acceptor heterojunctions,” Science, 270, 1995, 1789-1791. M. Lira-Cantu, F. C. Krebs, “Hybrid solar cells based on MEH-PPV and thin film semiconductor oxides TiO2, Nb2O5, ZnO, CeO2 and CeO2-TiO2: Performance improvement during long-time irradiation,” 90, 2006, 2076-2086. M. Lira-Cantu, I. Gonzalez-Valls. “Nanostructured excitonic solar cells,” Encyclopedia of nanotechnology. Springer Verlag. 2011. Submitted.. M. Lira-Cantu, F.C. Krebs, Patent Application UK05097667.0, Priority Date: May 12, 2005. K. Kalyanasundaram, M. Gra-tzel, Coord. “Synthesis and characterization of furanyl functionalized 2,2’:6,2- terpyridines,” Chem. Rev. 177, 1998, 347–414. A. J. Breeze, Z. Schlesinger, S. A. Carter, P. J. Brock, “Charge transport in TiO2 / MEH-PPV polymer photovoltaics,” Phys. Rev. B 64 , 2001, 125205. R. A. Janssen, J. C. Hummelen, N. S. Sariciftci, “Hybrid solar cells based on MEH-PPV and thin film semiconductor oxides (TiO2, Nb2O5, ZnO, CeO2 and CeO2–TiO2): Performance improvement during long-time irradiation” Mater. Res. Soc. Bull. 30, 2005, 33–36.


440

THE EFFECT OF ANNEALING TEMPERATURES ON PHASE AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF TIO2 NANOPARTICLES

FOR SOLAR CELL APPLICATIONS

A. Zareen S. Ali

Natural Resources Engineering and Management Department, University of Kurdistan, Iraq M. Irfan

Department of Physics, G.C. University, Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

In this research work, effect of annealing temperatures on different properties of TiO2 nanoparticles is being reported for Solar Cell applications. The nanoparticles were synthesized using Sol Gel Method. The solution of ethanol and distilled water was poured drop-wise into the solution of Titanium Butoxide (Ti (OC4H9)4) and Hydrochloric Acid (HCl). The precursor of nanoparticles was annealed at 200oC, 450oC and 650oC. The structure and phase determination was obtained using XRD analysis which confirmed very small crystallite size in the range of 6nm to 18nm and amorphous to anatase to rutile transformation with increased in annealing temperatures. UV-Vis spectroscopy helped in studying the influence of temperature on absorption, transmission and reflection with a remarkable red shift. The study revealed that the band gap decreases with increasing temperature.

Keywords: XRD, UV-Vis, TiO2. Introduction

TiO2 is a semiconductor having wide band gap [1] and high refractive index [2]. It is widely being studied due to its numerous applications especially in the field of optics [3]. It is found in three phases; brookite, anatase and rutile [4]. Among these three phases, rutile is the most stable phase. With the increase in annealing temperatures, TiO2 transformed from amorphous to anatase to rutile phase [5].

TiO2 can be used in nearly all types of solar cells. In organic solar cells, TiO2 thin film can be used as hole blocking layer, due to which increase in efficiency of hybrid solar cells has been reported [6]. Increase in efficiency is also reported for ordered TiO2 nano-layers, as charge transportation problem occurs in random networks [7]. Stability of solar cells can be affected by thickness of TiO2 thin films. These films also act as UV blocker [8] due to high absorption % in UV region. Layer thickness less than 500 nm is unable to stop UV rays from going inside the inverted organic solar cell which can degrade it, but thicker thin film [9] decreases charge transportation. Porous layer of TiO2 nanoparticles is used in dye sensitized solar cells. Dye is used in these type of solar cells to generate photoelectrons [10].

In this research work, TiO2 nanoparticles are prepared using sol gel method. Then effect of annealing temperature is investigated by various characterization techniques such as XRD and UV-Vis Spectroscopy which can be utilized for fabrication of different types of organic solar cells. Experimental

Nanoparticles of TiO2 were synthesized using sol gel method. The starting materials were Titanium Butoxide (Ti (OC4H9)4) and Hydrochloric Acid (HCL) acted as a catalyst, both


441

were mixed in the ratio of 13:0.8 to form a solution. Another mixture of ethanol (C2H5OH) and distilled water was prepared in the ratio of 55: 2.5 respectively [11]. Mixture of ethanol and water was added drop wise in Titanium Butoxide and Hydrochloric Acid solution with the help of pipette. Then stirring for 2 hour was done at 500C in nitrogen atmosphere for 2 hour. Then aging of sol was carried out for 24 hours at room temperature giving very fine gel network. After that gel was filtered and washed in ethanol and deionized water. Then 1 hour heat treatment, at 1000C, was given to gel for drying it. In last step, precursor was annealed at 200oC, 450oC and 650oC for 1 hour to obtain TiO2 nanoparticles.

Structural and phase analysis was performed using “X’Pert PRO MPD X- ray Diffraction System, PANalytical Company Ltd, Holland”. Optical data was acquired using Genesys 10S UV-Vis Spectrophotometer. Results and Discussion Structural Properties

Combine XRD patterns of TiO2 Nanoparticles are shown in Fig. 1.The broad peaks for 200oC signifying very small crystallite size and presences of amorphous factor. Moreover, all peaks are of anatase phase except one peak (121) of brookite phase[12].There is no rutile phase peak present at 450oC but almost pure anatase phase with tetragonal structure has been observed matching with JCPDS (Anatase, 01-0562).With increasing temperature, brookite peak has been significantly reduced [13]. Where rutile phase starts emerging near 650oC with the diminishing of brookite phase totally [14], matching with JCPDS (Rutile, 78-1510). Crystallite size is increasing with increase in temperature; also sharpness of peaks is improving presenting that material is becoming more crystalline. Crystallite size of TiO2 is calculated using Scherer formula: 𝐷 = 𝐾𝜆

𝛽 cos𝜃, where K is machine constant, λ is the X-Ray

wavelength, β is the full width half maximum, D is the crystallite size and 𝜃 is the Bragg diffraction angle. Crystallite size goes from 6nm to 18nm as temperature increases from 200oC to 650oC.

Fig.1: Combined XRD pattern of TiO2 Nanoparticles showing effect of annealing temperatures

Optical properties

Optical properties are studied by UV- Vis spectroscopy by using UV-Vis spectrophotometer. Fig. 2(a) showing that with the increase in temperature absorption increases. Moreover, in the UV region, absorption percentage is very high in comparison with visible region, due to


442

which TiO2 can be used as UV blocker in inverted organic solar cells which avoid solar cells from degradation as UV rays are so energetic cells [15].It improves stability of solar cells. The red shift appearing at absorption margin is due to the appearance of rutile phase at 650oC [16].

Fig. 2: (a) Graph between absorbance % and wavelength (nm). (b) Graph between transmittance % and wavelength (nm). (c) Graph between reflectance% and wavelength (nm), at various calcinations temperatures 200oC, 450oC and 650oC Fig. 2(a) showing that with the increase in temperature absorption increases. Moreover, in the UV region, absorption percentage is very high in comparison with visible region, due to which TiO2 can be used as UV blocker in inverted organic solar cells which avoid solar cells from degradation as UV rays are so energetic cells [15]. It improves stability of solar cells. The red shift appearing at absorption margin is due to the appearance of rutile phase at 650 oC [16]. Fig. 2(b) showing that transmission is decreasing with the increase in annealing temperature. At 650oC, near absorption margin red shift appears. Fig. 2(c) showing that reflection % increases with the increase in temperature but its values are smaller than absorption and reflection percentage values, that’s why TiO2 coatings can be used as antireflection coatings particularly in inorganic solar cells.

Fig.3 shows the decrease in band gap with increase in temperature Direct band gap Eg is calculated by using tauc equation which is given below α = k (h υ – Eg)1/2 /h υ α is the absorption co-efficient, h υ is the photon energy and , k is the constant, Extrapolation of straight line of (α h υ) 2 vs. h υ curve helped in band gap calculation. It can be seen in Fig.3 that band gap is decreasing from 3.2 ev to 3.0 ev while going from 200oC to 650oC due to effect of quantum confinement. Conclusion

Very small crystallite size is achieved like 6 nm. Confirmation of phase conversion from amorphous to anatase to rutile and increase in crystallite size with increase in temperature was observed by XRD. UV absorption in UV region confirmed TiO2 use as UV blocker. Its thin films can be used for antireflection coatings in solar cells as well as other


443

applications due to less reflectance values than absorption and transmission. Moreover, absorbance increases with increase in temperature. Also band gap decreases from 3.2 ev to 3.0 ev while going from 200oC to 650oC. References: S.Y. Dhumal , T. L. Daultonb, J. Jianga, B. Khomami , P.Biswas “Synthesis of visible light-active nanostructured TiOx (x < 2) photocatalysts in a flame aerosol reactor”, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 86 (2009) 145. D Mergel , D Buschendorf,S Eggert,R Grammes, B Samset, “Density and refractive index of TiO2 films prepared by reactive evaporation”, Thin Solid Films 371( 2000) 218. C. Euvananont, C. Junin, K. Inpor, P. Limthongkul, C. Thanachayanot ,“TiO2 optical coating layers for self-cleaning applications”, Ceramics International 34 (2008) 1067–1071. “From TiCl3 to TiO2 nanoparticles (anatase, brookite and rutile): Thermo hydrolysis and oxidation in aqueous medium”, 68(2007)695. Swati S. Pradhan, S.K. Pradhan, V. Bhavanasi, SambitaSahoo, S.N. Sarangi, S. Anwar P.K. Barhai, Swati S. Pradhan, “Low temperature stabilized rutile phase TiO2films grown by sputtering”, Thin Solid Films 520(2012)1809. K Uehara, H Kinoshita, A Hayakawa, T Morimoto, S Yoshikawa, “Novel Approaches to an Efficient Organic Photovoltaic Solar Cell using Nano-Controlling Technology in Bacterial Photosynthesis - Current Research and Development of Organic Thin Film Photovoltaic Devices”, Res. Inst. for Adv. Sci. & Tech., Osaka Prefecture University, Sakai, 599-8570,Japan. S.S Kim, J. Jo, C. Chun, J.C. Hong, D.Y. Kim, “Hybrid solar cells with ordered TiO2 nanostructures and MEH-PPV”, Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry 188 H. Sun, J. Weickert, H. C. Hesse, L. S. Mende ,“UV light protection through Ti02 blocking layers for inverted organic solar cells”, Solar energy materials and solar cells 95 (2011) 3450- O. Wiranwetchayan1, Z. Liang, Q. Zhang, G. Cao1, P.Singjai, “The Role of Oxide Thin Layer in Inverted Structure Polymer Solar Cell”, Materials Sciences and Applications, 2(2011)1697- Y.C. Yen, W.Y. Ko, J.Z.Chen, J Lin, “Enhancing the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells based on TiO2 nanotube/nanoparticle composite photo anodes” ,105 (2013) 142- 148. N. R. Mathews, E. R. Morales, M. A. Cortes-jacome, J.A. Antonio, “TiO2 Thin Films-Influence of annealing temperature on structural, optical and photocatalytic properties”, Solar energy 83 Y. Zhao, C. Li, X. Liu, F. Gu, “Synthesis and optical properties of TiO2 nanoparticles”, Material L. Han, A. Andrady, K. Guzan, D. Ensor, “Nanofiber Sensor Platform for Environmental Pollutant Monitoring and Detection”, Journal of international environmental nanotechnology conference 132 (2006) 213- 219. J. B. Naceur, M.Gaidi, F.Bousbih, R.Mechiakh, R. Chtourou, “Anealing effects on microstructural and optical properties of nano-structured - TiO2 Thin films prepared by sol-gel technique”, Current applied physics 12 (2012) 422-428. D. J. Kim, S. H. Hahn, S. h. oh, E. Jung, “Influence of calcination temperature on structural and optical properties of TiO2 thin films prepared by sol gel dip coating”, Material letters 57 (2002) 355-360.


444

WORDS, RHYTHM AND MEANING: LANGUAGE AND HYBRIDITY

Dr. Soha El Samad The Lebanese University, Third Branch

Abstract The subversion of Western epistemological ideas and the problem of identification

have been major concerns of postcolonial theory and writers. However, the extent to which postcolonial writers succeed in their endeavor to write back to the episteme is largely determined by the effectiveness of the language or their discourse. This paper deals with how language as used by postcolonial writers can unintentionally reveal a deeper or different meaning from their initial aims of answering back to an ‘Other’ culture that has labeled them as uncivilized and inferior. The heterogeneity of their language reveals contradictions and also points to the development of a hybridity capable of coping with a postcolonial identity crisis. In the course of this study that includes texts by Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka, the native discursive medium of Tayeb Salih’s novella, Season of Migration to the North, would also be analyzed for gaps, silences, and contradictions. A Kristevan semanalysis is applied to draw attention to the fluidity of the language, the repressed unconscious, and the semiotic disposition of the novelists and protagonists. Hence, these novels can offer a practical demonstration of how language can reveal the “indistinct music” and meaning of authors’ memories to produce texts whose originality lies in their diversity.

Keywords: Semiotic elements, phenotext, genotext List of Abbreviations The following is a list of abbreviations used in parenthetical citations. AG Arrow of God TI The Interpreters SMN Season of Migration to the North The phenotext: a term used by Julia Kristeva to refer to the phenomenological aspects of the signifying system. The genotext: it refers to what lies within the phenotext and that is signs in language indicating the repressed drives of an individual. Semiotic elements: according to Kristeva, these refer to the repressed unconscious or drives that rupture the signifying system or language.

The beautiful things we shall write if we have talent," Proust says, "are inside us, indistinct, like the memory of a melody which de- lights us though we are unable to recapture its outline. Those who are obsessed by this blurred memory of truths they have never known are the men who are gifted ... Talent is like a sort of memory which will enable them finally to bring this indistinct music closer to them, to hear it clearly, to note it down … (qtd. in Naipaul 2001).

Writing about anything, whether imaginary or real, involves the use of expressions and words that may create a certain rhythm or set the tone or mood of the text. The author’s choice of words or expressions may or may not be a conscious one and the readers’ reception of meaning is largely influenced by their effect. Strictly speaking, the writing act can be a spontaneous overflow of emotions as advocated by William Wordsworth, or the deliberate molding of material, according to Paul Valéry (Cronan). In either case, it usually reveals


445

aspects of a writer’s personality. Consequently, whatever medium of artistic expression used, art would always reflect something of the inner, dream-like memories of the artist. Taking this into consideration, the use of a language other than one’s mother-tongue should not necessarily indicate a disavowal of one’s cultural heritage, but can be regarded as an effective demonstration of a blending of cultures. In fact, art thrives through originality to communicate certain messages, and what could be more innovative and enlightening as when one medium or language is personalized to accommodate and reflect another culture?

Furthermore, when a writer wishes to express a reaction to something or someone, or to convey a message, it is quite logical he would do so in a language familiar to the one he/she is reacting to, or to the different audiences he is trying to address. Indeed, how would it be possible to enlighten both the colonizers and the colonized about Self and ‘Other’86 if not in a language both are familiar with? Besides, would it not also be interesting and enlightening, in the current global atmosphere, for previously colonized peoples to witness a blending of cultures within their own native language?

In fact, the use of the English language by previously colonized countries has been a debatable issue among many postcolonial writers and critics like Ngugu Wa Thiong’o, Chinua Achebe, Leoplod Senghor, Braj B. Kachru, Bill Ashcroft, Michael Ondaatje and others. Ngugi maintains that “Language carries culture, and culture carries, particularly through orature and literature, the entire body of values by which we come to perceive ourselves and our place in the world” (16). This is undeniable, but it is also possible to recognize that language is capable of communicating more than one culture and of revealing in-depth similarities and differences between them. It is also the suitable medium to express resistance to preconceived impressions about the colonized. In this sense, it accords with Edward Said’s “strategy of resistance” which entails an “enter[ing] into the discourse of Europe and the West, to mix with it, transform it, to make it acknowledge marginalized or suppressed or forgotten histories” (Ashcroft and Ahluwalia 109). Furthermore, Said asserts that writing back to the literature of the colonized may lead to more humanistic communities where “cultural hybridity and multiple identities” (Ashcroft and Ahluwalia 109) prevail. Consequently, a language like English, susceptible to change and development can play a significant role in reflecting national and international identity in a global world of increasing cultural interaction. The developing and changing form of the English language has not been overlooked and its malleability according to Kachru “does not have just one defining context but many – across cultures and languages” (295). From Old English, to Middle English, and to the English of today, the language has changed noticeably. This lack of fixity also makes it a comfortable medium through which postcolonial writers can write back to the continent and present a picture of their otherwise unfamiliar culture to the West and to the world.

Chinua Achebe, a major critic of Joseph Conrad, is one of the earliest African writers to provide readers with a vision of what is inside the darkness Conrad found impenetrable in his Heart of Darkness. His opinion of the English language as a suitable medium to write back to the West shows close affinities to that of Edward Said. He considers using the Other’s language can open the void between cultures and reveal a Third, or hybrid, Space which Homi K. Bhabha explains as one that,

Open[s] the way to conceptualizing an international culture, based not on the exoticism or multi-culturalism of the diversity of cultures, but on the inscription and articulation of culture’s hybridity … It makes it possible to begin envisaging national, antinationalist, histories of the ‘people’. It is in this space that we will find those words with which we can speak of Ourselves and Others. And by exploring this hybridity, this ‘Third Space’, we may elude the

86 Note: ‘Self’ and ‘Other’ are capitalized whenever they refer to a binary opposition between colonizers and colonized respectively.


446

politics of polarity and emerge as the others of our selves. (“Cultural Diversity and Cultural Differences” 209)

Also, in spite of insistence by writers like Ngugi Wa Thiong’o upon using one’s cultural language in order to preserve one’s heritage and enhance national identity, one cannot deny that postcolonial writers using the English language help provide an awareness of themselves and pave the way towards a middle space in which both Self and Other can meet. In this way, comparative literature is provided with rich analyzable material from which similarities and differences in cultures and societies can be appreciated; according to Ashcroft, “The post-colonial text brings language and meaning to a discursive site in which they are mutually constituted” (PSR 300). Ashcroft also refers to this middle space as the “‘metonymic gap’ installed by strategies of language variance” (302) through which self and other are encouraged to meet and interact. More importantly, even though Tayeb Salih has written in his native tongue, his novel includes many cultural references from the colonizing culture. In this manner, he provides tangible evidence of how the native language and culture can co-exist with that of the dominating culture. In so doing, he provides hope for the development and construction of a hybrid and fluid identity capable of surviving between two worlds and two cultures. In fact, Salih’s novella, as will be seen, is not far removed from the other novels in this study with respect to the portrayal of inner conflict. These texts, irrespective of their cultural background, share the desire to identify with their past and their present. Furthermore, in spite of differences in each writer’s style and technique, through which the effects of colonization are made obvious, the problem of identification with another culture seems to be the dominant issue. Basically, the chosen postcolonial novels portray the poverty and corruption of their respective societies against that of the main protagonists’ “disorder of identity” (Royle 59). A Kristevan semanalyis can help identify the disturbance resulting from a confrontation with a different and alien culture. It would seek to identify, through the gaps, silences and contradictions in the texts, the semiotic disposition of both the novelists and their protagonists and their “capacity for renewing the order in which [they are] inescapably caught up” (“The System and the Speaking Subject” 29).

To elucidate, a Kritevan semanalysis seeks to identify the significance of the semiotic elements in the semiotic chora as revealed through the signifying process. Significance is, according to Kristeva, “the meaning produced by the semiotic in conjunction with the symbolic” (qtd. in Mcafee 38). For, Kristeva, it is the semiotic chora, the repressed in the real and the imaginary, that accompanies the subject through the process of becoming a social being. This repressed can be identified in the symbolic elements, words, and rhythm of language as used by the subject and is associated with the maternal. As a result, “No living, speaking being is immune from semiotic disruptions” (Mcafee 39). Since every person has a “particular sexuality” (“Julia Kristeva in Conversation” 339) resulting from a unique form of repression, the semiotic elements that rupture the symbolic differ from one person to another. In most cases, the semiotic “tends to gain the upper hand at the expense of the thetic and predicative constraints of the ego’s judging consciousness” (qtd. in McAfee 38). Therefore, it is in language, in its silences and contradictions, and its rhythms or poetic language that signs of oppression or repression can be identified. Consequently, a semanalysis of the selected postcolonial texts can help disclose signs of the repressed semiotic that ruptures their symbolic or language.

I.

In Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God, readers are led into Conrad’s impenetrable darkness through a discourse as simple and fluid as the culture he tries to depict. Mbye Cham states that Achebe’s English is molded "to exploit creatively the flexibility and expressive resources of one's [African as well as European] linguistic heritage and legacy" (qtd. in Arana 498). What has been misrecognised as primitive and uncivilized by the colonizer’s gaze, is


447

presented as simply a different civilization with a common humanity. Achebe writes back to Conrad in the imported language of the colonizers to fill the blanks left by Marlow. In Arrow of God, he leads us into the heartbeat of the forest that Marlow was too afraid to venture into, and portrays the simple life of an African tribe with its complicated rituals and beliefs. Yet, in a novel intended to debunk the myth of the Dark Continent, Achebe’s language reveals the weakness of the African individual while the colonizer is all the time on the margins of the text, in a separate space. Consequently, this novel can be considered as an attempt to help postcolonial individuals identify their weaknesses and go beyond the physically and mentally restrictive notions of constantly blaming the colonizers for their misfortune. It is in the character of the protagonist Ezeulu that the psychological imbalance of leaders in African society is presented as one in need of transformation and change to cope with the impending cultural and political changes. The bi-patrite structure (Nnolim 258) of the novel keeps the colonizers at a distance and maintains their difference. The early colonial world portrayed is a vivid picture similar to what Fanon has described as a country,

cut in two… the policeman and the soldier, by their immediate presence and their frequent and direct action maintain contact with the native and advise him by means of rifle butts and napalm not to budge. It is obvious here that the agents of government speak the language of pure force. The intermediary does not lighten the oppression, nor seek to hide the domination; he shows them up and puts them into practice with the clear conscience of an upholder of the peace; yet he is the bringer of violence into the home and into the mind of the native. (37)

Though the White man influences the development of the plot, the conflict created is not presented as the main cause of the community’s disintegration. According to Paulin Hountondji, Achebe represents culture in Africa “as something invented and in constant need of reinvention (qtd. in Kortenaar 31). He uses the colonizers’ language, “to signify difference while employing a sameness which allows it to be understood” (Ashcroft et al., The Empire Writes Back 50). In fact, the weakness and fragility of the culture is highlighted by the language variance used, and in certain respects points to certain aspects of culture that justify what is believed as the colonizers’ misrecognition of their backwardness.

Achebe’s simple language is infused with a special touch that makes it musical and fluid. While proud to portray the dancing, rituals, songs, superstitions and proverbs of the African culture, he also sadly reflects the mental turmoil of Ezeulu in the face of change. Such a unique rhythmical touch is achieved through the masterful merging of traditional African proverbs with the acquired English language – combining the oral with the written, the symbolic with the semiotic. This fusion of the semiotic with the symbolic is indicative of his continued connection with the maternal or his mother-land. Proverbs reflect the African culture in an abundance of metaphorical content which, “has always, in the western tradition, had the privilege of revealing unexpected truth” (Ashcroft et al., The Empire Writes Back 50). Proverbs characteristic of the African oral culture, render the text a poetic quality providing it with “‘power rhythms’ which reproduce the culture by some process of embodiment” (Ashcroft et al., The Empire Writes Back 51). The images they invoke and the manner in which they are constantly embedded in almost all of the discourses in the narrative, with the exception of those related to colonizers, is evidence of the bold intervention of a language variance within the master discourse. Achebe has used the language of the father in a “pulsation of sign and rhythm” (Kristeva, “Desire in Language” 107). As the narrative progresses, the paraphernalia of traditional life and the proverbial rhythm that punctuates his narrative, gradually gains pace and reaches its height towards the end with the death of Obika, in a sort of climatic tension prior to the actual intervention of the colonizers and the subsequent harvesting of yams “in the name of the son” (AG 230).


448

The distance between the colonizers and the colonized is re-enforced by difference in the nature of the language. The colonizers’ use of “administrative jargon” (Nnolim 257) stands in sharp contrast to the proverbial and musical oral language used in Umuaro. Consequently metonymy is recognized as an attribute of the colonizers’ language while metaphor is ascribed to the language of the colonized. Paul de Man and Homi Bhabha explain this preference of metaphor as based upon an inherent feature of identity and totality which encourages a “universalist reading” (Ashcroft et al., The Empire Writes Back 51) rather than a culturally specific one. As such, it is quite a suitable technique considering Achebe’s text as a writing back from one culture to another. As for metonymy, it is interesting to note that Achebe’s Englishman is called “Winterbottom” in symbolic reference to his native land and is given prominence with his constant grumbling about the unbearable heat. His discomfort from the hot weather and fear of the darkness is further reflected in the white man’s anxious rhetorical questions concerning the “heart-beat of the African darkness” (29).

Indeed, the distance of the colonizers from the centre of the villages at that moment in time, indicates that both cultures had as not as yet come into close religious and cultural contact with each other. When this does eventually happen, it is not due to Umuaro’s hospitality towards them, since many native men were still hostile towards the white man, but to their own internal conflict. In a narrower sense, the breakdown of their society is a result of the psychological build-up of chiefs like Ezeulu, obsessed with the idea of power. The following passage from the novel indicates Ezeulu’s ambitious nature as the basis of the conflict with his rivals Nwaka and Ezidemili, and also reveals the manner in which proverbs skillfully and naturally permeate language:

Whenever Ezeulu considered the immensity of his power over the year and the crops and, therefore, over the people he wondered if it was real. It was true he named the day for the feast…but he did not choose it. He was merely a watchman. His power was no more than the power of a child over a goat that was said to be his. As long as the goat was alive it could be his… No! the Chief Priest of Ulu was more than that, must be more than that. If he should refuse to name the day there would be no festival—no planting and no reaping. But could he refuse? No Chief Priest had ever refused. (3)

Thus, it is Ezeulu’s desire to determine the extent to which he can exert control over his clan which is the driving force of his actions that ultimately leads to his downfall. Towards the end of the narrative, Ezeulu recognizes another kind of power, the power of writing with its more distinct use of signs: the white man “had power… he could do what he liked. Why? Because he could write with his left hand” (AG 189). An oral culture is therefore confronted with the power of a written one. He returns from exile to once more encourage Oduche, his son, to master writing. Yet, by stubbornly refusing to name the New Yam Feast, the yams become signs of transformation as his people are driven to harvest their yams shielded by the new religion; they convert from a pagan to the Christian religion.

As the omniscient narrator with a god’s eye-view, Achebe, is also a medium representative of power and authority manipulating both his main protagonist and major Whiteman character to achieve his purpose. He turns Ezeulu into an arrow in his “bow” or narrative and uses Winterbottom to set the plot in motion as he requests to meet Ezeulu from his distant marginal space. Ezeulu’s actions can be considered to reflect that of postcolonial and neocolonial rulers who believe they are independent from their own people. It is therefore appropriate for Achebe to remark that Ezeulu’s “implacable assailant having stood over him for a little while stepped on him as on an insect and crushed him under the heel in the dust” (AG 229). His downfall also leaves the message “that no man however great was greater than his people” (AG 230). As for Captain Winterbottom, he goes into a coma just at the moment when Ezeulu is detained at headquarters, and the omniscient narrator appropriately remarks at the end of the narrative, “it looked as though the gods and the powers of event finding


449

Winterbottom handy had used him and left him again in order as they found him” (AG 230, my italics). In effect, these powers of event are set by the narrator himself. This establishes that Achebe has merely used the Whiteman to highlight Ezeulu’s shortcomings.

One of Achebe’s main concerns with respect to identity development is the issue of blame. In fact, there are certain important events in the narrative that play upon this word or the issue of constantly blaming the Other. Ezeulu reminds the elders during the land dispute that “our fathers did not fight a war of blame” (18). Later, it appears that Ezeulu himself applies blame unfairly. When Oduche imprisons the sacred python in a box, his father blames him for such an action when in fact he should also carry part of the blame for sending him there in the first place. Edogo angrily reminds his father that he sent Oduche there implying ‘blame’ though not actually pronouncing the word. Ezeulu once more uses it in the wrong place when he says, “I blame Obika for his fiery temper…” (53). It appears there is no direct connection between the abomination his son is supposed to have committed and how he is punished for it; when Obika is whipped by the Whiteman, Edogo is upset at his father’s reaction in which, he “did not ask him what happened before blaming him” (AG 99). Once more, Ezeulu tells the leaders of Umuaro that he cannot allow them to eat the Yams, commit a sacrilege, and take the blame for it. Even more interesting, Ezeulu’s clansmen decide to harvest their yams for a second burial saying that they could not be blamed for such an action, as “the fault was Ezeulu’s” (AG 217). Thus, blaming someone where blame is due or not seems to be one of Achebe’s concerns.

The omniscient narrator not only takes us into Ezeulu’s thoughts but also into those of Edogo, his eldest son and this is where Edogo’s significance lies; according to Olakunle George, “Achebe is an artist-figure, a literate incarnation of Edogo the carver” (359). It is Edogo who is bold enough to point out his fathers’ faults, and through his thoughts “rendered in a combination of omniscient narration and interior monologue” (George 354) readers are informed of the selfish and manipulative side of Ezeulu. His father disapproves of him, and also resents his relationship to his half-brother. When he visits his father’s friend Akubue to tell him of his doubts concerning the priest-hood, he is misunderstood and looked upon with “pity and a little contempt” (126) even though he does not ‘blame’ Edogo at first for being concerned. It is also interesting to notice that the mask he carves at the end has ‘a certain fineness which belonged…to a Maiden Spirit” (200) and which indicates the merging of the feminine with the masculine just as Achebe merges the oral with the written tradition.

In addition to a certain pre-occupation with “blame”, one of the most recurrent images in the novel is that of the lizard in the proverb, “The lizard who threw confusion into his mother’s funeral rite did he expect outsiders to carry the burden of honoring his dead?” (AG 125). This is “one of the controlling metaphors of the entire novel in a way that inextricably ties it with the total meaning of the work”, claims Charles Nnolim (260). In effect, the image of the lizard runs parallel with the incidents of the narrative related to blame and confusion until the end where it is used to explain what has happened to Ezeulu.

In such a narrative, Achebe attempts to show Africans that they are not “the victims but the makers of their own history” (Kortenaar 40). Though it is unfair and ironical that Ezeulu goes mad while Winterbottom is accorded a somewhat happy ending, this harsh sense of justice, when brought to the attention of readers who either share or are familiar with aspects of Ezeulu’s character, can draw attention to the significance of a re-definition of identity. Achebe portrays both colonial and postcolonial individuals as prejudiced. He seems to be blaming the postcolonial condition upon the African individual’s narcissistic obsession with power and not on the colonial presence. In using the colonizer’s language, he does not repress his semiotic, but rather infuses it through proverbs, with an excess of metaphors, creating “a literate form unlike poetry or the traditional epic—[that] has served to encode the mother’s folktale in a new idiom, a new linguistic transaction” (George 358). His style


450

therefore, with its gaps and contradictions, enlightens the West about a culture they have never understood, answers back to Conrad, while revealing the weakness of an African chief.

II.

In a similar and yet slightly different account of loss and frustration, Wole Soyinka’s language in The Interpreters portrays a “multi-cultural reality” (Ashcroft et al., The Empire Writes Back 30) in which postcolonial individuals attempt to locate themselves. His experiments with the English language mark him as a postcolonial writer in a class of his own. He imbues African traditional mythological characters into his narrative thereby diverting from the established norms of the English language and “offer[ing] a new idiom or language of apprehending postcolonial identity” (Msiska xv). Whereas Achebe’s narrative abounds with proverbs, Soyinka moulds his with African mythology in a more complex style so as “to create a new tradition, that of the Afro-European novel” (Wa Thiong’o 70). Such a bold experimentation with language is proof of Soyinka’s creativity and authenticity and sheds light upon “the cultural specificity of African culture in the context of its complimentarity with and difference from other cultures” (Msiska xxix).

Soyinka infuses his language with African mythology to help shape the apathetic and depressed postcolonial identity of his African intellectuals. Myths in this novel become the stepping stones of their country’s culture through which they can recognize and appreciate their position in relation to others. Though the characters seem like ambiguous masks at the beginning, their development works in parallelism with that of the Yoruba Pantheon of the gods that is being painted by Kola, one of the intellectuals. The Pantheon is a portrait of the characters in the novel with each representing a mythological god. Since these mythological gods “are the primal foundations of African culture, and therefore of history” (Macebuh 29), it is through them that the novel’s protagonists can show signs of changes and development. Furthermore, using these aspects of African culture endows the narrative with a unique African texture that makes it stand apart from other novels written in the English language. According to Abiola Irele, “one of the functions which this return to the African source has served… has been to effect a cultural differentiation of their creations from those of the metropolitan writers, and thus to afford some kind of psychological satisfaction to the African writer in his striving for an original medium” (25/26).

Readers of The Interpreters can also experience “the abyss of postcolonial transition” (Msiska 112) as they progress through a figurative and ambiguous language never lacking in symbolism and mysticism. According to Sanley Macebuh, “Language in Soyinka is difficult, harsh, sometimes tortured; his syntax is often archaic; his verbal structures sometimes impenetrable…And bearing in mind his basic preoccupation with myth, it might on the face of it appear an insupportable contradiction that the language of myth is usually simple” (31). The novel’s first sentence sets the tone of complexity in an ambiguous sentence structure and meaning, “Metal on concrete jars my drink lobes” (TI 7). This obscurity is further complicated by an account of the characters’ actions without the reader being actually told what is going on. Such constraints or ‘semiotic functions’ in the language lack rhythm or poetic effects because they are “drawn from the drives’ register of a desiring body, both identifying with and rejecting a community” (Kristeva, Desire in Language 108). This ‘signifying disposition’ within language can be recognized by any ego going through a similar crisis of identification, and is a “jubilant recognition that, in “modern” literature, replaces petty aesthetic pleasure” (Kristeva, Desire in Language 109).

Macebuh further explains this complex projection of mythology as a reflection of the author’s repressed drive: “Part, at least, of our impression of the harsh inscrutableness of Soyinka’s language may be seen as an exact equivalent in words of that unease of the mind that is the lot of all those who have suffered a modification of vision through colonialism” (31). Therefore, in this novel, borders between the phentotext and the genotext are blurred as


451

both form and content share a sense of ambivalence which has rendered it open to various interpretations. Femi Abodunrin explains that part of the novel’s ambivalence lies in the fact that characters in Nigeria are using an English language they cannot identify with, and which also fails to express some of their needs. For example, “When Winsala reaches this point in his grim discussion with Sagoe, he stops speaking English altogether. What would have followed 'the grin and outspread hands' in the logic of the English language would be 'Are you going to agree to give us a bribe?'” (TI 156). Nevertheless, Soyinka’s complex language reveals “the movement of rejection and appropriation of the other” (Kristeva, “Desire in Language” 110).

More importantly, one cannot miss the excellent poetic nature of Soyinka’s language with its metaphors and images. The beautiful portrayal of the African girl dancing, “She was immense…she filled the floor with her body…and she moved slowly, intensely, wrapped in the song and the rhythm of the rain” (TI 22) and Simi, the “Queen Bee” are among the numerous poetic evocations. Death is personified in quite a paradoxical manner, “for death to come at Sagoe rather like a rude child, its sticky tongue hanging out” (TI 110). Even Sagoe’s criticism of philosophical ‘isms’ produces a certain rhythm, a “dirge” as he calls it. He comically and satirically infuses his philosophy of “voidancy” with bowel movements. His criticism of “isms” calls to mind philosophies which Derrida has also referred to as “theoretical monsters” (Royle 115). The temporary satisfaction Sagoe obtains by reading his philosophies to Mathias produces a satisfaction, a jouissance, as his repressed instinctual drives are purged.

Moreover, the rhythmic and poetic quality in the description of Egbo’s experience of the transitional abyss under the bridge is captivating:

And morning came, baring lodes in rocks, spanning a grid-iron in the distance; it was a rainbow of planed grey steel and rock-spun girders lifting on pillars from the bowers of the earth. Egbo rose and looked around him, bathing and wondering at life, for it seemed to him that he was born again, he felt night now as a womb of the gods and a passage for travelers … He left with a gift that he could not define upon his body, for what traveler beards the gods in their den and departs without a divine boon. Knowledge he called it, a power for beauty often… (TI 127).

In the above passage Soyinka merges natural elements and modern ones with mythology producing a beautiful image of a rainbow created by the bridge over the river. Inspired by Ogun, Soyinka’s favorite muse, Egbo leaves this place. It is striking and vivid passages like this that have earned Soyinka the title of a ‘mythopoiest’ with an imagination that is, “in quite a fundamental sense, a mythic imagination” (Macebuh 29). We can also identify with the sorrow of Sekoni’s father as he worries about the son he had forsaken for marrying a Christian. His anger is compared to that of Shakespeare’s Lear, “his haji mantle blown about his shoulders like the mane of Lear on an asphalt heath” (TI 98). Later on, Sekoni’s death leaves his friends sadly devastated, and Soyinka’s rendering of the road accident that kills him is expressed in a beautiful evocative language in which myth, emotion, and blood are smoothly blended:

The rains of May become in July the slit arteries of the sacrificial bull, a million bleeding punctures of the sky-bull hidden in convulsive cloud humps, black, overfed for this one event, nourished on horizon tops of endless choice grazing, distant beyond giraffe reach. Some competition there is below, as bridges yield right of way to lorries packed to the running-board, and the wet tar spins mirages of unspeed-limits to heroic cars…the blood of earth-dwellers mingles with blanched streams of the mocking bull, and flows into currents eternally below earth. (155)


452

It can be noticed that Soyinka’s creative use of punctuation marks enhances the spiritual quality of his language: he defers the coma until after the word “grazing” though sentence meaning would have been less complicated had it been placed after “choice”. Expressions like, “mirages of unspeed-limits” are also interesting as they produce a mood of intense sadness combined with harsh criticism upon the tragic reality of bad roads and careless driving. In effect, careless driving has been one of Soyinka’s main concerns, and Sekoni’s death reflects this concern that is also based upon real life events. According to Mpalive-Hankson Msiska, “On a personal level, it is said that Soyinka was deeply affected by the death, in a road accident, of his best friend Segun Alowolo, as he explains in an article written in around the same time as The Road” (113).

Soyinka’s omniscient narration also serves to project some of his favorite mythological figures, like Ogun, Obatala, Sangoe, and Esumare, unto his main character. This integration results in a novel that contains a “complex interweaving of myth and history” (Msiska 6) and “offers a new semiotic form” (44). Out of this form, Soyinka projects fragments of himself concerned with various disturbing aspects in society. He expresses, through his varied characters, and in a plurality of voices, satire, comedy, irony, sadness, anger and frustration. Hence, with respect to the gods mentioned, Egbo is uneasy about his past, Bandele is at odds with the present, Sagoe is bitterly critical of the hypocritical and corrupt individuals, and Lazarus provides his own interpretation of religion; one that is meant to reform and change the poor lost souls in society. These characters are, in a way, reminiscent of the author’s concerns with the prevailing neocolonial atmosphere of the country. Towards the end, they develop into unified whole reflected in their representation within a single frame, in the Yoruba Pantheon. Similarly, the novel presents this image of characters gathered together, and leaves a certain twist or opening, as Egbo leaves the circle of friends. In this way, Soyinka demonstrates how a unique African identity can be constructed. An identity that holds its cultural history in reverence while surviving in a modern atmosphere; one capable of being responsible in the present through a more active participation in society.

What is striking in this novel is that its “deliberate ambiguities” (Osofisan 185) produce a cathartic effect for both the author and the readers in the same manner as that experienced by the various characters in the novel. Through Soyinka’s poetic language, the polyphony of discursive voices, the bewildering sentence structure, mythological gods, and the different art forms of music, painting, and sculpture, we are led into the transitional abyss of the novel in order to emerge with a certain notion of a hybrid identity. Though the ending is suspended, the characters seem to have broken the circle of passivity in an “unbelieving” stance caused by Bandele’s bold curse on the hypocritical doctor and politicians. With Bandele’s profound words, his expression of freedom of the will, the readers almost fall into a stupor not unlike that of the bewildered characters themselves. Following this overhanging and dizzy sensation, one would imagine that the characters would awaken to a stronger sense of self or to a different perspective on self-identity.

Inspired by Ogun, the “titular god” (Macebuh 36), Soyinka uses his creative talent to modify the English language and make it coincide with the qualities of the Yoruba mythic language to reflect his concern for the construction of an African identity that can combine both tradition with modernity; as Macebuh explains, “the type of English he chooses is likely to reflect this concern, to reflect the search for roots” (35). Ato Quayson also elucidates upon this tendency to transfer myth into “an Africanist cultural discourse” as one that “seeks to forge a metaphysical African community” (213/214).

III.

It appears therefore that through these novels written in English, early signs of a hybrid identity are emerging. As for novels written in the native tongue, Tayeb Salih’s


453

novella, Season of Migration to the North, provides a discourse in which the presence of the dominant culture is strongly felt in spite of the medium used. Following the intense personal struggle of two protagonists within two opposing cultures, the novella portrays the construction and development of a hybrid identity. It can be said that this novella is adequate proof that “even a novel in Bengali or Gikuyu is inevitably a cross-cultural hybrid” (The Empire Writes Back 28).

Denys Johnson-Davies “one of the most renowned Arabic-to-English translators” (Nassar), does justice to the original Arabic version by remaining faithful to the poetic qualities of the Arabic language. The novella’s abundance of similes and metaphors, of women, together with its allusions and intertextual qualities is an adequate display of “the fusion of cultures” (Ashcroft et al., The Empire Writes Back 30) as it demonstrates how diverse cultural qualities can meet within a single linguistic space. In effect, the narrator tells his tale in a fluid metaphorical language that grafts aspects of Western literature into an Arabic novel, merging the self with the Other in much the same manner as Mahjoub, his friend, does in his grafting of a tree. It is a dialectic portrayal of cross-cultural conflicts in an attempt to arrive at an interlocking relation between the two, one in which a fluid and hybrid identity can foster a much needed spirit of nationhood in a complex postcolonial society.

Salih’s language reveals how the “thetic phase”, that which “marks a threshold between two heterogeneous realms: the semiotic and the symbolic” (Kristeva, “Revolution in Poetic Language” 102) can be made to disappear in what is also known as a “‘second-degree thetic’, i.e., a resumption of the functioning characteristic of the semiotic chora within the signifying device of language. This is precisely what artistic practices, and notably poetic language, demonstrate” (Kristeva, “Revolution in Poetic Language” 103). It appears that both the phenotext and genotext merge together in a novella that lacks a definite structure, as boundaries between the present and the past are blurred through the shadow-like presence of Mustafa Sa’eed who hovers over the narrative between presence and absence. Furthermore, the narrator’s psychic disturbance is not only reflected through the narrative structure but also through the inherent semiotic qualities of his language. In fact, it is this eruption of the maternal chora in his language that attempts to achieve a certain balance in the narrative and to maintain his position in a patriarchal society in which the fear of castration plays a dominant role in the development of identity. As a result, at the end of his narrative, what emerges is a fluid and bi-cultural identity, one who is “half-way between north and south” (SMN 167) and whose will to survive arises out of his sense of responsibility to his immediate family that can be achieved through a reconciliation of the differences between cultures, and through an active involvement in society. This final state also answers the narrator’s desperate question towards the middle of the narrative, “Where lies the mean? Where the middle way?” (SMN 108).

Like Soyinka’s The Interpreters, the dominant atmosphere is one of ambivalence and ambiguity. However, the source of ambiguity in Salih’s narrative is different from that of Soyinka’s in the sense that it arises out of the absences, shadows, contradictions, and rhetorical questions within the narrative voices rather than out of the structure of the language used. Combined with the above sources of ambiguity are allusions to Othello and to various Arabic and Western writers. Moreover, the use of the two protagonists is similar to Conrad’s style, what Saree Makdisi and R. S. Krishnan have also recognized as an intertextual similarity. With a blend of the Western and the Eastern, Salih’s text comes to occupy a hybrid space in a dialectical relationship between two others: “the symbolic other and the semiotic Other” (Margaroni and Lechte 99).

In a nostalgic mood and in a language characterized by running metaphors and repetitions providing a rhythmic sensation and fluid atmosphere, the un-named narrator describes his return from England. Upon his arrival, he says he felt “as though a piece of ice were melting inside me, as though I were some frozen substance on which the sun had shone”


454

(1). The beautiful natural elements depicted in such a simple poetic language indicates his jouissance at returning to the maternal – his motherland. Musa Al-Halool also notes that,

The rich, green fronds gracefully dangling from the palm trees, the wind wafting through the wheat fields, the cooing turtle doves, the murmur of Nile, the incantations and strength of his eighty-eight year old grandfather all reassure the narrator that, like the sturdy trunk of the palm tree in his backyard, he too, has roots and a purpose. (33)

However, as the narrative progresses he becomes aware that his long absence has made him different from the rest of the villagers. His feelings of estrangement are worsened by the ambiguous presence of Mustafa Sa’eed whose narrative takes up a substantial amount of the narrative space. Sa’eed tells his story in a language with even more vague, secretive and strange happenings. In fact, his language is not much different from the narrator’s in its use of metaphors; he compares himself first to a rubber ball, “I was like something rounded, made of rubber” (20), then to a sharp instrument “my mind was like a sharp knife” (22), preparing both the narrator and the reader for the ensuing depiction of violence. His obsession with the feminine is realized when he compares Cairo to a European woman in the form of Mrs. Robinson (25). In a way, his attachment to Mrs. Robinson can be considered as a child’s longing for the mother. As he travels away from his country, home and mother, he unconsciously desires the feminine and the maternal to feel secure and at ease in the over-bearing patriarchal and racial atmosphere of England. Also, to satisfy the Other’s gaze and feel accepted in society, he satisfies their desire by projecting the image of the Orient as the mystical place they have always been fascinated with. He does so through his relationship with the three women in a beautiful poetic language that establishes his position as their semiotic Other:

sandalwood and incense; the ostrich feathers and ivory and ebony figurines; the paintings and drawings of forests of palm trees along the shores of the Nile, boats with sails like doves’ wings, suns setting over the mountains of the Red Sea, camel caravans wending their way along sand dunes on the borders of the Yemen, baobab trees in Kordofan, naked girls from the tribes of the Zandi, the Nuer and the Shuluk, fields of banana and coffee on the Equator, old temples in the district of Nubia; Arabic books with decorated covers written in ornate Kufic script; Persian carpets, pink curtains, large mirrors on the walls, and coloured lights in the corners... (SMN 146)

His room in England is in sharp contrast to the one in the Sudan into which no one is allowed to enter, especially women. Upon beholding the room in the Sudan, the narrator’s surprise is suitably expressed: “Good God, the four walls from floor to ceiling were filled, shelf upon shelf, with books and more books and yet more books” (136). The damp and grey atmosphere here is in sharp contrast to his other more ‘feminine’ room in England. What is significant is that, in the two essentially patriarchal societies, these two rooms provide a breathing space for the protagonist Sa’eed. Due to the overpowering atmosphere of the repressed jouissance in the Real of English women, such a room in the midst of the oppressive symbolic English atmosphere would be considered a haven. As for the room in his house in the Sudan, it represents a space, an outlet, for the emergence of his own repressed semiotic emotions amid the oppressive atmosphere of his native Sudan. He gives vent to his repressed through sketches and portraits of his former girlfriends and by writing poetry. These are satisfying actions for the cathartic effect they produce. Together with the overall mood of ambiguity, intertextuality, and rhythmic flow of language, the theme of postcolonial responsibility is also brought to light. Salih’s narrator makes an ironical statement that urges readers or listeners to re-consider their positions in a postcolonial atmosphere. For example, it is quite ironical that an Englishman can explain the current postcolonial and neocolonial atmosphere of the country, in a manner they themselves


455

should be aware of. Coming from an Englishman, this reality tends to be more striking: “You used to complain about colonialism and when we left you created the legend of neo-colonialism. It seems that our presence, in an open or undercover form, is as indispensable to you as air and water” (SMN 60). Furthermore, the repressed instinctual drive of both narrators is released in a language that is fluid, rhythmic and musical, one which contains a variety of images that affect our senses of sight and sound: the cooing bird, the fog, the music and the dancing women in the desert. For instance, our sense of smell is invoked by the narrator’s grandfather: “When I embrace him I breathe in his unique smell which is a combination of the large mausoleum in the cemetery and the smell of an infant child” (73). This paradoxical combination is very beautiful in its suggestion of life and death. Added to this, are the contradictions that heighten the ambiguous atmosphere. For example, as the narrator grows farther apart from his surroundings, the friendly sun that greets him upon his arrival becomes the enemy (SMN 111). Even more effective are the narrator’s thoughts as he floats uncertainly between North and South, unsure of where to go, “for an indeterminate period, quiet and darkness reigned, after which I became aware of the sky moving away and drawing close, the shore rising and falling” (SMN 168). In effect, the sky and the shore are not moving, but he is. In a beautiful poetic style, he himself becomes the transferred epithet.

Thus, in an evocative poetic language, Tayeb Salih presents the psychological crisis of two characters – Sa’eed who has witnessed early colonization and played a part in it on the side of colonizers, and the un-named narrator who, like Soyinka’s intellectuals, returns to his homeland after studying abroad. As one narrator reveals his story to the other, an iteration develops. Such a repetition is initially recognized through certain similarities between the narrator and Sa’eed. In fact, it is due to this similarity that the narrator is attracted to Sa’eed. However, such a repetition is diverted at the last moment to reveal signs of difference. Instead of allowing himself to drown in the river or disappear like Sa’eed does, the narrator chooses life. At this point, a fluid identity emerges. In a way, the narrator’s gasp for breath and cry for help can “illustrate a newfound awareness of place” (Velez 200). The narrator breaks the circle of repetition with a certain difference; he is like the kink in the mobius band and may be considered an example to future postcolonial individuals seeking to develop their identities.

It is interesting that Salih, writing in his mother-tongue, produces a narrative that blends the East with the West to reveal the process of identity development. The person who finally emerges from the water is one attached to his roots while welcoming change and the colonizing Other. In fact, Salih’s novella reflects strategies of resistance that ultimately develop into identification and a desire to participate positively in society.

IV.

A semanalysis of the above postcolonial novels demonstrates the process through which a balanced postcolonial identity develops. In effect, these novels belong to what Aschcroft et al. have identified as the fourth model of postcolonial texts which,

argue for features such as hybridity and syncreticity as constitutive elements of all post-colonial literatures (syncretism is the process by which previously distinct linguistic categories, and, by extension, cultural formations, merge into a single new form). (Ashcroft et al., The Empire Writes Back 14)

It has been possible to follow the process of identity development and understand that arriving and sustaining a cultural identity requires constant transformation and change. Those who were initially unfathomable, primitive, and strange in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness have developed into identifiable others who are essentially similar in spite of their difference. The rhythm produced by an interesting structural deviation from the norm of the English language, by the added touch of essential attributes of authors’ cultures, interestingly provides variety to the texts intertextuality as they write back to the episteme. Furthermore, an intriguing use of


456

contradictions, gaps, and shadows has led readers into an abyss from which more mature, enlightened, and flexible personalities could emerge. Works of art capable of instigating a cathartic effect is an experience from which the reader can become enlightened. The writing act itself is cathartic since it expresses the writer’s resistance and simultaneously reflects an inner psyche susceptible to change and hybridity. Essentially, what happens in the process of literary and poetic activity is efficiently elucidated by Kristeva:

[She] argues that in highly complex societies, transgression, and therefore revolt, is possible from a psychological perspective: being in analysis, writing a novel, making a work of art, being intensely in love – all these can be the basis of revolt and trigger for a restructuring and enriching of psychic space. (Margaroni & Lechte 93)

Thus, it can ultimately be argued that the effectiveness of a text’s message lies in an author’s individual style and in his/her artistic creativity and psychological status. Even though the main protagonists in these novels do not portray a well-defined hybrid identity, they do however point to a development towards such a state. Essentially, the flexible nature of the English language has made it possible for a beautiful and interesting cross-cultural merging, as has the fluid and simple ‘hakawati’ style of Arabic narration made it possible for Tayeb Salih to merge East and West. The postcolonial novelists under consideration therefore establish that identity is hybrid and fluid; it can come to terms with its roots and history, be open to different cultures, and be prepared to acknowledge its difference from others. From such hybrid space, an individual can live and survive harmoniously in the constantly changing and developing global atmosphere. References: Abodunrin, Femi. “The Politics and Poetics of Otherness: A Study of Wole Soyinka's 'The Interpreters.” The Yearbook of English Studies 27 (1997): 150-164. 13 July 2009 < http: //www.jstor.org/stable/3509139>. Achebe, Chinua. Arrow of God. Heinemann Educational Books Inc. Great Britain: Cox &Wyman Ltd. 1983. ---. “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Heart of Darkness. Ed. Robert Kimbrough. New York: Norton, 1988. 251-61. 17 August 2008 <http://social.chass.ncsu. edu/wyrick/debclass/achcon.htm>. Al-Halool, Musa A1-. 2008. "The Nature of the Uncanny in Season of Migration to the North." Arab Studies Quarterly 30: 31-38. Arana, Victoria R. “Introduction: The Chinua Achebe Special Section.” Callaloo 25. 2 (Spring 2002): 497-501. 8 August 2008 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3300582>. Ashcroft, Bill. “Constitutive Graphonomy.” The Postcolonial Studies Reader. Ed. Bill Ashcroft Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin. 1995. New York: Routledge, 2003. 298-302. ---, and Pal Ahluwalia. Edward Said. 1999. New York: Roultedge, 2001. ---, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin. The Empire Writes Back. London: Routledge, 2002. Bhabha, Homi K. “Cultural Diversity and Cultural Differences.” The Postcolonial Studies Reader. Ed. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin. 1995. New York: Routledge, 2003. 206-209. Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. Trans. Constance Farrington. New York: Grove, 1963. George, Olakunle. “Achebe’s Arrow of God.” Comparative Literature Studies Vol. 42. 4 (2005): 344-362. Irele, Abiola. “Tradition and the Yoruba Writer.” 1975. Perspectives on Wole Soyinka: Freedom and Complexity. Ed. Biodun Jeyifo. USA: Mississippi UP, 2001. 3- 26. Kachru, Braj B., “The Alchemy of English.” The Postcolonial Studies Reader. Ed. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin. 1995. New York: Routledge, 2003. 291-295.


457

Kortenaar, Neil Ten. “Beyond Authenticity and Creolization: Reading Achebe Writing Culture.” PMLA 110. 1. MLA (Jan., 1995): 30 – 42. 6 August 2008 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/463193>. Kristeva, Julia. “Desire in Language.” The Portable Kristeva. Ed. Kelly Oliver. Updated Edition. NY: Columbia University Press, 2002. ---. “Julia Kristeva in Conversation.” The Portable Kristeva. Ed. Kelly Oliver. Updated Edition. NY: Columbia University Press, 2002. ---. “The System and the Speaking Subject.” The Kristeva Reader. Ed. Toril Moi. New York: Columbia UP, 1986. ---. “Revolution in Poetic Language.” The Kristeva Reader. Ed. Toril Moi. New York: Columbia UP, 1986. Macebuh, Stanley. “Poetics and the Mythic Imagination.” 1975. Perspectives on Wole Soyinka. Ed. Biodun Jeyifo. USA: Mississippi UP, 2001. 27- 39. Makdisi, Saree. “The Empire Renarrated: Season of Migration to the North and the Reinvention of the Present.” Critical Inquiry 18.4 (1992): 804-20. Margaroni, Maria, and John Lechte. Julia Kristeva: Live Theory. Cornwall: MPG Books Ltd., 2004. McAfee, Noëlle. Julia Kristeva. New York: Routledge, 2004. Msiska, Mpalive-Hankson. Postcolonial Identity in Wole Soyinka. New York: Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam, 2007. Naipaul, V. S. “Nobel Lecture: Two Worlds". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2013. Web. 28 Feb 2014. <http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2001/naipaul-lecture-e.html> Nassar, Aida. “The Art of Translation.” Daily News Egypt July 7, 2006. 22 June 2009 <http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=2180>. Nnolim, Charles, E., “Technique and Meaning in Achebe’s Arrow of God.” Emerging Perspectives on Chinua Achebe. Vol. 1. Ed. Ernest N. Emenyonu. Trenton: Africa World Press Inc., 2004. 247 – 263. Obiechina, Emmanuel. “The Human dimension of History in Achebe’s Arrow of God.” Emerging Perspectives on Chinua Achebe. Vol. 1. Ed. Ernest N. Emenyonu. Trenton: Africa World Press Inc., 2004. 265-273. Osofisan, Femi. “Wole Soyinka and the Living Dramatist.”Perspectives on Wole Soyinka: Freedom and Complexity. Ed. Biodun Jeyifo. USA: Mississippi UP, 2001, 172 – 186. Quayson, Ato. “The Space of Transformations: Theory, Myth, and Ritual in the Work of Wole Soyinka. 1997. Perspectives on Wole Soyinka: Freedom and Complexity. Ed. Biodun Jeyifo. USA: Mississippi UP, 2001. 201- 234. R.S. Krishnan, “Reinscribing Conrad: Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North,” International Fiction Review 23.1-2 (1996): 7-15, 1-2. Rogers, Lynne. “The Season of Tayeb Salih: Crossing the Boundaries.” Al Jadid 15. 60 (2009). 21 Feb 2010 < http://www.aljadid.com/ features/ TheSeasonof TayebSalihby LynneRogers.html>. Roy, Anjali, and Viney Kirpal. “Men as Archetypes: Characterization in Soyinka’s Novels.” Modern Fiction Studies 37. 3 (1991): 519-527. Royle, Nicholas. Jacques Derrida. London & New York: Routledge, 2003. Said, Edward W. “Orientalism.” The Postcolonial Studies Reader. Ed. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin. 1995. New York: Routledge, 2003. Salih, Tayeb. Season of Migration to the North. Trans. Denys Johnson-Davies. 1966. Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers, 1991. Saree Makdisi, “The Empire Renarrated: Season of Migration to the North and the Invention of the Present,” Critical Inquiry 18 (1992): 804-20. Soyinka, Wole. The Interpreters. Oxford: Heinemann African Writers Series, 1970.


458

Suleri, Sara. “Woman Skin Deep Feminism and the Postcolonial Condition.” The Postcolonial Studies Reader. Ed. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin. 1995. New York Routledge, 2003. 273-280. Velez, Mike. “On Borderline Between Shores: Space and Place in Season of Migration to the North.” College Literature 37.1 (Winter 2010): 190-203. Wa Thiong’o Ngugi. Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature Nairobi. East African Educational Publishers, 1986.